The release of each Bobby Watson album is a significant event in the cultural history of Kansas City. The saxophonist has long been the dominant locally based practitioner of the art form associated with the town. When a new recording is not only specifically dedicated to the sound of Kansas City but is also one of the best works of Watson’s career, the entire city should rejoice.
Watson plays with quiet confidence on Back Home in Kansas City, the third Watson solo album released by Smoke Sessions Records in the past five years. The music is more of the same- and in Watson’s case, that’s more than enough. Immediately comfortable and immensely satisfying, the mainstream jazz of Back Home in Kansas City possesses a lived-in feel.
Recorded on April 5, 2022, with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, pianist Cyrus Chestnut, bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Jones, Back Home in Kansas City is an instant classic. The title track exemplifies Watson’s feel-good, toe-tapping approach. The quintet pays homage to Count Basie on Lewis’ jumping “Red Bank Heist.”
Guest vocalist Carmen Lundy imbues “Our Love Remains,” a recently minted standard co-written by Watson and Pamela Baskin-Watson, with mature sophistication. And ballads don’t get much better than the reading of “I’m Glad There Is You.” The secret of life is embedded in Watson’s knee-buckling solo.
Two homages to John Coltrane are the only variations from straightforward Kansas City swing. Watson makes a profound spiritual statement on “Dear Lord” as Chestnut showcases his peerless gospel chops. “Side Steps” is a strutting modification of Coltrane’s titanic “Giant Steps.”
A ticker-tape parade as part of an official civic holiday is warranted, but there’s nothing stopping grateful fans from celebrating the release of Back Home in Kansas City on a more modest scale. Everyone in the Kansas City area should be glad to be live in a time and place in which Watson is producing art for the ages.