Elementary (1976)

Glastonbury 1994. Me'Shell NdegéOcello is performing songs from her seminal jazz fusion album Plantation Lullabies on (what was then) the NME stage. Unlike her performance at the Jazz World stage a day earlier, her audience is confused. Unable to digest songs, which they don't really know, being extended threefold or more in the context of a live jam. Me'Shell takes centre stage, flipping between bass, keyboards and vocals. More unassuming is Watson, sitting to her right, one foot on the Wah Wah pedal with a stance like a blues player. Yet the man commands with decades of experience at the top of his field. He is rhythm guitar. He IS wah wah.

'Better known as Wah Wah', Melvin Ragin became one of the first musicians recruited to Motown's formidable session players during its transition period from Detroit to California in the late 60s early 70s. There he played alongside Hitsville originals like Earl Van Dyke and James Jamerson, but the rise of one Motown's last great producers, Norman Whitfield, would be most influential on his style. He led the rhythmic use of the infamous 'Wah-wah' pedal, doning a Sherlock Holmes hat he earned his nickname. He became integral to the Whitfield sound, his long trademark wah-wah strokes could be heard reverbed throughout Whitfield's productions for the Temptations, Undisputed Truth and Rose Royce. As the sound of the seventies left behind Motown and Stax with lofty strings and funky rhythms of Whitfield, Hayes, Mayfield, and Gamble & Huff, Watson quickly became in demand one of the top session guitarists in America, alongside Ray Parker jr. He would play on countless records, including those of Barry White, Donald Byrd, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Pointer Sisters, Peaches & Herb, the Main Ingredient, the Originals, Thelma Houston and Herbie Hancock.

Listening to Elementary you can hear how much Watson was a part of Hancock's mid-seventies recordings. In the early seventies Hancock moved away from modern jazz, experimenting with synthesisers and putting together the Head Hunters for what he considered was a 'straight ahead funk album'. Aided by David Rubinson ('& friends') who would produce all Hancock's output that decade. Rubinson would push the boundaries between soul, jazz, funk, rock and folk for artists like LaBelle/Patti LaBelle, the Pointer Sisters and Phobe Snow - the same way Bill Laswell would in the eighties (with whom Hancock recorded Rockit). As Hancock continued in his laid back vein, Wah Wah was drafted to add his distinctive rhythm guitar - something the original Head Hunters deliberately didn't use. But Watson contributed more than just that, co-writing much of 1975's Man-Child and even co-producing the follow-up Secrets - including the Grammy award winning Doin' It which he co-wrote with Hancock and Ray Parker. It was Watson who instigated (and performed) the Vocoder style voice bag effect that Hancock would make so famous during his disco period (I Thought It Was You, You Bet Your Love).

Though more vocal, Elementary is very much of that period. Produced by Rubinson, if features an all-star list of session players and Hancock collaborators. Including Ray Parker jr, Ollie Brown, Louis Johnson (of the Brothers Johnson), John Barnes, Joe Sample & Wilton Felder (of the Crusaders), Clarence McDonald, Dave Grusin, Bennie Maupin and even James Jamerson. Hancock himself only guests on two songs, one a rerecording of Bubbles, originally featured on the Man-Child album. The other, Good Friends, a monotone bassed groover, with a near Giorgio Moroder fashioned synth (second) bassline with sub-classical interludes. With Watson obviously the focus of attention, the album moves through the many Watson moves through the many styles he played on. From the Whitfield/Blaxpoltation-ish of Goo Goo Wah Wah - a precursor to Doin' It - to the sweet Barry White inspired soul of Love Ain't Somethin' (That You Get For Free) to the uptempo disco flavoured jam of Together (Whatever) to the sub-blues of Cry Baby, originally recorded by Watson on Quincy Jones' 1975 album Mellow Madness. Even finding time for several ballads, Love My Blues Away, My Love For You Comes And Goes and I'll Get By Without You, allowing more time for those long, echoed strokes. Elementary is a rare solo release for a man so present in the background of so many 70s recordings.

If the 1980s had little use for Wah Wah, Acid Jazz inspired short lived love affair in 90s America with pre-drum machine 'natural' sounds - even if that meant replaying riffs as opposed to simply sampling them - found in rap, fusion and (what some called) 'nu classic soul'. Watson found a place again, collaborating with NdegéOcello on Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion, co-writing the intro and outro themes for self styled Marvin wannabe Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite. He joined Lester Bowie and the underrated now defunct rap trio Digable Planets on a song for the Red Hot compilation album Stolen Moments, Flyin' High In The Brooklyn Sky. Possibly the best of the Red Hot projects, it brought together contemporary rap artists and original 60s and 70s jazz musicians, and also featured Watson on NdegéOcello and Hancock's collaboration. Yeah its true baby, Wah Wah is back. So just dig it.