Cleveland Watkiss
Frank and Mark’s
Iffley Village Hall, Oxford
10 January 2026

Cleveland Watkiss Vocals
Mark Harrison Drums
Mark Hodgson Bass
Mark Mondesir Drums

Cleveland Watkiss with Mark Mondesir were Frank Harrison and Mark Hodgson’s first guests of 2026. Watkiss is a man of many parts, ranging from acting to playing experimental music gigs with Pat Thomas and Orphy Robinson. Watkiss’s wide ranging career is detailed in Ian Mann’s review of Watkiss’s album ‘The Great Jamaican Songbook Volume 1’ https://www.thejazzmann.com/artists/profile/cleveland-watkiss-the-great-jamaican-songbook-vol-1.

Tonight Watkiss was in jazz vocalist mode but with an effects board that enabled him to add reverb and looping as well as the effects he created just by his skilful microphone technique. He has a great voice which stretches from high falsetto to some growling basso profundo notes possibly aided by his effects panel. It has an edge which for me makes it the more attractive, and he uses his voice with great confidence and control. This was the first time I had heard him and on the evidence of this gig scatting is very much his thing as he scatted with great variety in every number.

None of the numbers were announced but the set consisted mainly of jazz standards which were made to sound fresh and new not only by Watkiss’s creative phrasing and scatting but by Frank Harrison’s sparkling piano solos delivered without repetition or hesitation and with stylish deviations from the main tune. I don’t think I’ve heard him play better. His liquid solo in ‘Trust Me’ was especially lovely.

The two principals were well backed up by Mark Hodgson on double bass both as soloist and as ensemble player, and by Mark Mondesir’s unobtrusive but essential empathetic work on the drums.

Watkiss’s voice was not an instrument but several instruments. His scatting sounded like a sax in ‘Trust Me’, a flute in ‘Desafinado’ and a trumpet in ‘Caravan’. Before the tune came in and his scatting became flute like, the start of the number had been unrecognisable as ‘Desafinado’ with Watkiss’s initial scatting reminiscent of the polyphonic singing of the indigenous Baka people of Cameroon and the Central African Republic. By the end ‘Desafinado’ had again become unrecognisable via what sounded like overtone singing with a hint of a jaw harp before arriving at multi- tracked vocalese ending with that aforementioned deep bass growl.

The joyful near ecstatic ‘From This Moment On’ captured perfectly the enrapture expressed in the lyrics. It was another surprise that the number turned out to be ‘From This Moment On’ as it opened with a double bass solo that was nothing like followed by percussive staccato scatting that to my ear echoed Carnatic singing from south India.

After so many scatting fireworks, the gently swinging laid back ‘Smile’ with Mark Mondesir using mallets and done to a rhumba rhythm came as another surprise. It worked well both in it’s own right and as a good contrast with much else in the set. A propulsive ‘How High the Moon’ went down particularly well with the packed audience as did a jazz funk number.

Watkiss concluded with Marvin Gaye’s ’ What’s Going On’, sung powerfully and very movingly using reverb and with the lines “What’s going on in 2026”, and “Immigrants are not the problem”

In general I am not a big fan of vocal jazz and of scatting but I became absorbed by Watkiss’ performance. It was very creative, especially his phrasing, laced with surprises and with good and not excessive use of looping and reverb effects. Every time I have been at Frank and Mark’s it’s been a sell out and the audience has been very appreciative, but Cleveland Watkins got the loudest and longest cheer I have heard in my visits there. It was thoroughly deserved.

Set List as I heard it:
Just Friends (Chet Baker)
Trust (Herbie Hancock)
How High The Moon
Desafinado
From This Moment On
All The Things You Are
Jazz Funk number Essence of Life??
Caravan
Smile
What’s Going On

COLIN MAY