The Charlie Watts-Jim Keltner Project contains some undeniably bewitching grooves, all of which reflect a 21st-century intersection of world beat, techno, and jazz. But here's the usual question: Is this meeting of great drummers really a jazz album? Sure, the tunes are named as dedications to a Mt Rushmore-sized litany of jazz drummers. But the tunes don't portray the individual drummers' styles. Rather, they evoke a feeling or mood--like a world tour played on acoustic and electronic percussion with a dance-club vibe prevalent throughout. Elements of swing, trad jazz (Watts's elemental Baby Dodds-like pulse on the spatial dirge "Tony Williams"), and bebop (the appearance of an uptempo piano trio in the Afro-techno aural collage known as "Max Roach") occur throughout. Overall, though, this is less a jazz set than a percussion ensemble's take on the global village, with "Kenny Clarke" sounding an eastern vibe and "Billy Higgins" portraying a blues beat as it might sound in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, via Bombay. The concluding "Elvin Suite" is the most satisfying, and not coincidentally the most acoustic in character, with a Coltrane-ish tempo, McCoy Tyner-like piano filigrees, stylized swing brushes, and an enchanting South African-style vocal chorus with blues shout-outs. Watts, Keltner, and their label dub this "techno-world beat exotica," and it certainly shows traces of all. --Chip Stern
