John Scofield: Music of Ray Charles - Gatineau, Canada 10/15/05

John Kelman

Senior Editor since 2004

With the realization that there will always be more music coming at him than he can keep up with, John wonders why anyone would think that jazz is dead or dying.

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Published: October 19, 2005

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John Scofield Plays the Music of Ray Charles
Theatre, Casino du Lac Leamy
Gatineau, Quebec
October 15, 2005

With the passing of singer Ray Charles last year, it's no surprise that a proliferation of tribute albums have been coming out of the woodwork. In the jazz world, it's safe to say that there's no guitarist of significance better-suited for adapting the soulfulness and groove of Charles' music to a looser improvisational context than John Scofield. Still, while That's What I Say: John Scofield Plays the Music of Ray Charles was good enough, it also suffered, in places, from excessive over-production. With horn sections and a host of high profile guests including Mavis Staples, Dr. John, John Mayer and Warren Haynes, it was a record that garnered a lot of attention; still, the tracks that worked best, the ones that captured Charles' spirit and translated it into a more playful exploratory approach, were those featuring the core quartet of keyboardist Larry Goldings, bassist Willie Weeks and drummer/co-producer Steve Jordan.

Scofield's playing throughout the album was as strong as one would expect. He possesses a rich and varied jazz vernacular, but he's also got the grease and grit to tackle Charles' more straightforward material, applying that language to create more unpredictable solos that rest perfectly between the "in" and the "out." Still, despite the high level of musicianship, even the quartet tracks felt, at times, too considered.

Not so his touring band for the album, consisting of organist Gary Versace, bassist John Benitez, drummer Steve Hass and singer/trombonist Meyer Statham. Their October 15, 2005 performance at Gatineau's Casino du Lac Leamy, just across the river from Ottawa, Canada, opened the material up in ways that make it almost disappointing that Scofield didn't take a similar approach for the studio recording. This group may not have the star power of those participating on the recording, but they gave the material more life, more energy. And Scofield took considerably more risks with the material, taking it to places that better combined his more recent interest in sound manipulation with his unequivocal and distinctively personal jazz language.

And while it's true that nobody in the band has the cachet of Staples, Mayer or Dr. John, they're not exactly unknown in music circles. Benitez has been associated primarily with Afro Cuban and Latin jazz in New York since emerging in the mid-1990s, playing mainly acoustic bass with artists including Eddie Palmieri, David Sanchez and Conrad Herwig. But the truth is that he's no stranger to more funk-based groove music, and last night proved himself to be an equally accomplished electric bassist—at times working house-like rhythms with Hass, elsewhere chest-deep in Marcus Miller territory with dynamic string slapping and popping.

Hass' résumé is more inherently diverse. From swing with Frank Vignola to folk with Meg Flather and contemporary post bop with Ravi Coltrane and George Colligan, Hass' breadth of exposure makes him the perfect player for Scofield's group. Swapping snares between tunes to get just the right tone and snap, Hass was as at home playing a solid backbeat as he was more elastic time.

Statham—who, in addition to vocal duties, played a little trombone to add a brass texture to some of the tunes—is, if not the least-proven, certainly the least-known. With a smoother tenor than Charles, he may not have seemed the appropriate choice for a tribute band. But, truth be told, this group is all about placing a personal spin on familiar music, and Statham's relaxed phrasing, peppered with the occasional growl, brought new things to the Charles repertoire, and at the end of the day, that's what this should be all about.

But amongst a group of outstanding musicians it's Versace who is clearly the one to watch. A versatile player who's as comfortable on accordion and piano as he is organ, he's a star on the ascension, someone who is quickly gaining ground and exposure. Since basing himself in New York in 2002, he's become an increasingly in-demand player, one who can navigate the metric complexities of Rez Abbasi's Indo-Pakistani fusion as easily as the more abstract leanings of John Abercrombie and the through-composed work of John Hollenbeck.

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