Curtis Stigers swinging and sublime at Ronnie Scott’s
Thursday, December 18, 2014
At the pulsating core of Ronnie Scott’s stood a slick Curtis Stigers, intoning his moving tribute to American jazz pianist, Gene Harris, entitled ‘Swingin’ Down at Tenth & Main’: the packed crowd behind rows of beacon-like red lamps were his wings, tipped with the photographed presence of others of jazz’s glitterati who have graced this stage.
As a youngster, distinctive vocalist, saxophonist and songwriter Stigers attended jam sessions led by Harris at the Idanha Hotel in his home town of Boise, Idaho and it was here he developed a passion for jazz that has remained with him throughout a 23-year career as a Emmy-nominated and platinum-selling soul and rock artist and since 2001, an award-winning jazz singer.
If tonight’s fabulous gig was anything to go by, it was this inspirational grounding in jazz that has ensured his informed and intelligent transition from rock to jazz star. Joining him for two sets which showcased many of the tracks off his latest album, Hooray for Love released in April 2014, plus unexpected numbers such as John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’, were his top-notch touring band, Matthew Fries on piano, Cliff Schmitt on double bass, Paul Wells on drums and James Scholfield on guitar.
All of them were on smokin’ form: Stigers’ tenor saxophone growled, played up close to the mic on opener ‘I’ll Be Home’ by Randy Newman, during which Fries and Scholfield immediately got deep down on piano and guitar. Pleasing to the ear was Wells’ execution of the ‘Pionciana Beat’; a quasi-rhumba beat invented in the 1950s by American drum legend, Vernel Fournier, in accompaniment to ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’.
Superlative use was made of dynamics throughout, with some dramatic fade-outs, and Scmitt’s melodious, quiet sections during his double bass solos demanded a closer listen, varying the overall musical texture of the highly charged show.
Stigers wittily described his pop record from 1992, ‘You’re All That Matters To Me’ as being “from the late 1800s; one of Prince Albert’s favourites.” It was performed with a contemporary twist, however, with Stigers beatboxing convincingly during the introduction. The rocky middle section was felt sensitively by all, punctuated by Fries’ neat staccato stops on piano and Wells’ delicate work on cymbals.
Scholfield’s compelling guitar playing was by turns exceptionally gentle, for example his rhythm guitar on standard, ‘Love Is Here To Stay’ and red-blooded: On ‘My Babe’ by Chicago blues man, Willie Dixon, the audience went wild for his blues guitar solo. Here also, Stigers and Schmitt were unknowingly swaying together in unison as if they were both cut from the same cloth.
Stigers totally inhabited ‘Valentine’s Day’ by Steve Earle; his slidey vocal inflections here lent believability to the pathos of the lyrics, indeed following his tender rendering of Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields’ ‘The Way You Look Tonight’, he said that great songs are “the kind you get lost in.”
A consummate artist, Stigers elegantly brings to his work an amalgamation of everything he has learnt from his musical heroes and from working within the genres of jazz, rock and pop to create something original, which along with his own fine modern jazz standards such as ‘Hooray for Love’, propel his music beyond ‘interesting’ to the echelons of the sublime.
– Gemma Boyd
– Photos by Carl Hyde www.hydeandhyde-photography.com