Maktub's Watts: charged up and ready to move

Time, time, time, time ...

On break from his Friday-night show at the Baltic Room, soulful singer Reggie Watts sits at a window counter of the nearby Bauhaus Books and Coffee, peacefully ruminating on music and life — so often interchangeable, for him — as a gentle rain falls on Capitol Hill.

Asked if there is a theme to "Khronos," the new album that Maktub fans have been waiting three years for, Watts smiles and nods his head, his huge Afro (perhaps the largest in the Northwest) undulating slightly. Turns out to be a rather fatuous question, but, rather than saying something like "What part of Greek don't you understand?," the easygoing Watts answers it sincerely.

The theme that kept coming up while making the album, he says, was — as the title suggests — time. "It's not something I'm always thinking about, it's something I'm affected by," he says, stroking his Ohno-esque facial hair. "I feel the compression of time in my life, the desire to master time.

"I want to see so many things in this world ... I'm in hyperactive mode."

This is not news to those familiar with the Seattle club scene. Watts and members of Maktub (pronounced "mock-tube") regularly perform at "jam nights" on Fridays and Sundays at the Baltic Room and Thursdays at the Scarlet Tree. On top of that, Watts does improvisational singing here and there at places like EMP's Liquid Lounge, Sit & Spin, the Last Supper Club — even the Center for Spiritual Living in Sand Point, where he performed (with members of Children of the Revolution) earlier this night.

"I think of myself as a community person — when very obscure things pop up, I tend to take on those projects. I feel a duty to do them," says Watts, whose thoughts range from morosely philosophical to wildly comical. "Sometimes, it gets me in a little bit of trouble: I get tired and ungrounded."

On the positive side, improvisations on the jam nights occasionally survive as the roots for Maktub songs. That happened, for example, on "See Clearly," a song from the new album that gestated at the Scarlet Tree. "We came up with the chord progressions when we played out live, and then I developed the melody."

This album, by the way, is perhaps even better than "Subtle Ways," the debut Maktub album that marked the band as one of the Northwest's finest acts. Shortly after that 1999 album, Maktub had a pretty significant shake-up; keyboardist Alex Veley departed, and Daniel Spils (keyboards/synthesizers) and Thaddeus Turner joined holdovers Davis Martin (drums) and Kevin Goldman (bass).

Watts says the addition of Turner's guitar is the biggest change, and that it, perhaps, is why the music of "Khronos" is slightly more focused.

As interesting as the music is, it is the voice of Watts that makes Maktub so singular in Seattle's rock-heavy scene. On the new album, he again sounds terrific, suggesting everyone from Al Green to Marvin Gaye to Earth, Wind & Fire's Philip Bailey.

"Just Like Murder," the album's most satisfying song, has Watts climbing the scales for Bailey-like falsettos, then lowering the boom with a powerhouse tenor chorus. "Give Me Some Time" is another winning song on "Khronos," which at times sounds like it was beamed here from the early '70s. Which was about when Watts came to Earth.

A native of Great Falls, Mont., Watts moved to Seattle in 1990, when he was 18. An extraordinarily talented artist who has acted and performed as a stand-up comic in addition to his widely varied singing career, Watts sounds like he's starting to get itchy feet:

"This town is great — we have choices about where we can play, we have great support. But I'm ready — really ready — to move on to the next level. I'm at a crossroads," he says, crossing his arms to illustrate.

He checks his watch. It's time — tick tock, tick tock — to get back to work.

Soon enough, Watts is back at the Baltic Room, and soon enough he is dancing around a makeshift stage as the music blends from a DJ to live players. In the next hour, Watts will play guitar, knock around on drums and take turns at the microphone with the Piece of Sol MCs, as the Maktub rhythm section lays down a heavy-funk beat.

Tonight, Watts and Maktub skip out on their regular Baltic Room gig for a CD-release concert at the Showbox (9 p.m., $12).

Coming to the Croc

Daniel Ash, originally scheduled to play the Crocodile last month, finally visits the Belltown club on Monday (10 p.m., $22). The former Bauhaus — the band, not the cafe — and Love and Rockets singer is expected to sing stuff from his past as well as an electronic-heavy new solo album.

Tom Scanlon: 206-464-3891 or tscanlon@seattletimes.com.