The Inverness Spectrum Centre drama studio will host an unusual concert and workshop on Thursday 27 July 2006 by a duo whose strong rhythms and melodies take influences from all round the world. Their tour is supported by the Jazz Services National Touring Support Scheme and the Inverness visit is presented by The Highland Council as part of its Scottish Arts Council supported programme.

Trevor Watts, alto and soprano sax and percussion, and Jamie Harris, djembes/congas/barabuka/vocals, started working together in 1999. This was when Trevor formed the 8-piece Celebration Band http://thecelebrationband.whistlingmule.com . The duo began in 2002, and its music is a distillation of the processes Trevor has always been interested in. Strong melodies and rhythms are at its heart, continuing the dynamism that was at the heart of his Moire Music Drum Orchestra. Trevor and Jamie have been working on the music consistently since then.

The duo played a successful concert at the London Jazz Festival in 2004, part of which was broadcast on BBC 3’s Mixing It. In 2005 they toured most of Europe, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Chile, Peru, USA, Mongolia, New Zealand & Australia and Brazil, where they recorded their current CD ‘Live in Sao Paolo’, during two sell-out nights in the SESI Theatre.

Trevor is a completely self-taught musician. It was whilst doing his national Service and joining the RAF band in 1959, that he met up with John Stevens and Paul Rutherford, amongst others, and formed the musical association that was to become the Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Amalgam. These groups radically transformed the face of European style jazz and improvised music.

Trevor is steeped in percussive related music, having led and toured the World for 16 years with his Moire Music Drum Orchestra. (Recording ECM 1449 "A Wider Embrace") That group featured 5 drummers from West Africa, bass guitar, kit drums and his saxes. He has also worked with top Djembe player from Burkina Faso, Adama Drame, and a few years ago was invited to play with a Traditional group of Sudanese musicians from the West of Sudan at the Khartoum International Music Festival amongst many, many other things.

These groups represented an early style of music that has now become recognised as having "World Music" influences at the core. But when Trevor put those groups together the term had not even been used. For him it was a period to discover how to put together music that had the influences he was brought up with - Jazz, Latin, African and Asian musics, and how he could approach it with the voice of an individual. This process is still ongoing, the Duo being the latest version of this style of playing and is in many critics’ opinions, the most successful to date.
Trevor says of his collaborator: Jamie Harris is now emerging as one of the best and most creative percussionists in Europe, and is ideal for this particular music. He is a very sympathetic and supportive player who is totally dedicated to the music we are making together.”

Jamie Harris, who has wide experience of holding workshops and teaching African percussion techniques. is offering a percussion workshop at 4pm in the Spectrum Centre. Bookings should be made through Education, Culture & Sport at Inverness Town House. Participants will need to bring their own drum or home-made percussion instrument. Jamie will take them through some rudiments of African percussion before building on an ensemble piece.

“Tribal dance music with swirling celebratory melodies” – All About Jazz, New York

“Watts and Harris Thrive On A Higher Plane" - Chicago Tribune

Drumming/Percussion Workshop with Jamie Harris

Spectrum Centre, Inverness (Drama Studio)

Thursday 27 July 2006

Percussion workshop with Jamie Harris

2 Hours in length (4 – 6pm)

Cost £7/5

Joint workshop and concert ticket £12/8

Bookings 01463 7624261 or email adrian.clark@highland.gov.uk  


Trevor Watts and Jamie Harris Duo  Concert

Thurs 27 July 2006 - 8pm

Spectrum Centre (Drama Studio)

Tickets: £7/5 www.thebooth.co.uk  and 01463 724261 and Spectrum Centre (from mid June). Joint workshop and concert ticket £12/8

Supported by The Scottish Arts Council through The National Lottery