Bombay Atlas

Your attention is invited to a collection of albums of the now legendary Putumayo World Music label.
Each album is supplied with a colorful booklet containing a lot of interesting information about the music styles within the chosen themes for an album (the names of the albums are always bright - they speak for themselves), and also about the musicians-performers.

Those fans with more than a passing knowledge of the Rolling Stones will be aware of drummer Charlie Watts' longtime interest in traditional jazz. Some might even be aware that Watts has assembled and fronted a British big band, and has also led a solid jazz quintet with several CDs to its credit. Still, it comes as something of a surprise initially that Watts would produce what appears to be a solo drum CD, with song titles named after various jazz master drummers – "Max Roach," "Art Blakey," "Shelley Manne," and so on. Superficially, this might suggest an ego trip for Watts wherein he sets out to demonstrate his dazzling technique and versatility, but Watts' characteristic modesty would never allow him to attempt such a thing. Instead, what he has done – with the assistance of drummer, producer, and idea man Keltner – is to distill some sort of personal essence of each of the nine drummers featured on this CD, and then put together what amounts to a series of musical portraits.