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Neil Charles Quartet: Dark Days
ByIt takes all of usand that includes musicians, especially musicians. Composer and drummer

Max Roach
drums1925 - 2007

John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967

Pat Thomas
pianob.1960

Mark Sanders
drumsb.1960

Cleveland Watkiss
vocalsb.1959
Rather than simply reciting Baldwin's Dark Days essays, Charles distills them into potent fragments, letting emotion flow through both the instruments and Watkiss's voice. Watkiss does far more than sing: he speaks, shouts, gargles, mumbles, screams and scats Baldwin's words, wringing every drop of urgency from them. In "I Knew It," his delivery makes palpable the loss of innocence Baldwin experienced in Jim Crow America. The repeated line "Why Do We Hate?" becomes less a question than an existential reckoning, a Socratic challenge. Behind him, the band surges with its own fury: Charles as a modern-day

Charles Mingus
bass, acoustic1922 - 1979

Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982

Kenny Clarke
drums1914 - 1985

Milford Graves
drums1940 - 2021
"Army" opens with Watkiss's croon floating over Charles's bowed bass, gradually expanding as Thomas plucks and strums inside the piano and Sanders scrapes cymbals into a rustling crescendo. Watkiss layers his voice into a choral swell via live electronic loops, creating a sound both intimate and vast. In "Treason," the lyric "we wish to be citizens" is first spoken plainly, then sung operaticallyits repetition sharpening the absurdity of such a plea needing to be made at all. Sanders's acrobatic drum solo propels the music into "A Nation," where Thomas's piano gymnastics fan the flames of protest into an almost theatrical climax.
The set closes with Baldwin's voicethrough Watkisscasting a wide net, urging not just Black Americans, but also Irish, Chinese, Jewish and all marginalized peoples to "Find a Way" to preserve hope and claim their rightful place. It is a reminder that the struggle for dignity is global, and that faith in change is itself a revolutionary act.
Dark Days does not simply honor Baldwin; it extends his fight, translating his fierce clarity into a soundscape that is urgent, unflinching and impossible to ignore. In a time when history risks fading into abstraction, Charles and his collaborators make sure it still burns bright. ">
Track Listing
Dark Days; I Knew It; Why Do We Hate; They Do Not See; Dark Days Outro; Sing Or Shout; Children; Army; Treason; A Nation; Find A Way.
Personnel
Additional Instrumentation
Neil Charles : compositions; Mark Sanders: percussion: Cleveland Watkiss: loops.
Album information
Title: Dark Days | Year Released: 2025 | Record Label: Jazz Now
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