Outside of his celebrated role as drummer for the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts has had a small but significant jazz-oriented solo career. A lifetime student of jazz, and of Charlie Parker in particular, Watts (who is also a gifted illustrator) started in 1964 by publishing a children's tribute to Parker titled HIGH FLYING BIRD. During the '70s, he joined long-time Stones pianist Ian Stewart in the Rocket 88 band, which featured young British jazz players like Evan Parker and Courtney Pine. In the '90s, a number of intimate, standards-only Charlie Watts Quintet discs also appeared. Branching out, Watts then collaborated with fellow drummer Jim Keltner on the CHARLIE WATTS/JIM KELTNER PROJECT (2000), a "tribal" electronica project consisting of instrumental portraits of Watts's jazz percussion heroes.