Hit Pick

The Dave Watts Motet, with Jive and Los Guarancheros, Saturday, January 8, at the Boulder Theater, celebrates the release of its new CD, Breathe, as well as the joys of life in a band that jams more than Smuckers. Led by the impressive drumming of Boulder's Watts, who's done time...

January 6, 2000

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The Dave Watts Motet, with Jive and Los Guarancheros, Saturday, January 8, at the Boulder Theater, celebrates the release of its new CD, Breathe, as well as the joys of life in a band that jams more than Smuckers. Led by the impressive drumming of Boulder's Watts, who's done time with Skin and Boston's Shockra, the Motet finds members of such local outfits as the Tony Furtado Band, Leftover Salmon and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band borrowing everything from jazz, funk, and even Afro-Caribbean rhythms and vocals. It's a complex and worldly blend captured nicely on Breathe, where the average song length is a hearty ten minutes. Still, the players demonstrate enough studied skill and ingenuity to counter perceptions that jam music is aimless or undisciplined. It won't, however, do much to alter the stereotype that this kind of music is made for dancing: The Motet will proudly tell you that it most certainly is. -- Laura Bond

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