OK, Seattle is not exactly what I would call a "soulful" town. Caffeinated maybe, wet certainly, white mostly, but soulful hardly. Except for one thing: Reggie Watts. On the wings of Watts' effortless baritone, smooth falsetto, and his deep-soul outfit Maktub, Seattle has become the true home to the "new soul" movement. And the Loft -- a small, underground nightspot that draws the likes of Graham Hayes, Robert Walters, Sherik, and DJ Logic -- has become its living room. Every Thursday night Loft curator and downtempo bassist PK Kemmish joins Watts, Maktub, and other smooth-groove players for an extended jam session at a nightclub called the Scarlet Tree. Sounds awful, right? Like you might want to shove a skewer through your ear, right? Wrong, and wrong again. The weekly improv sessions of Das Rut are mind-bending dance events, fueled by and comparable to some of the best Memphis soul, deep funk, and groove-oriented disco to come out of the early '70s, all filtered through Watts' peculiar sense of humor and golden tonsils. With hip-undulating keys, heart-palpitating bass, pimp-shuffling skins, and some of the coolest guitar-playing this side of the Mississippi, Das Rut might be cause for a new pair of shoes even without Watts, even though critics' comparisons of the vocalist to Al Green are not exaggerated. Raised in Spain and Montana, but born in Germany to a French mother and an African-American father, Watts is a 100-proof distillation of uptown smooth and downtown cool, the aural equivalent of urban sophistication and bedroom eyes, and he's one of the most charismatic stage performers you're likely to see up close and personal. So drink lots of water and bring extra soles, because you never know how long the party will last when Das Rut performs on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 23-24, at the Boom Boom Room at 8 p.m.originally published: August 20, 2003
BY SILKE TUDOR