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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Back to a quintet for "I've Got a Woman," the band didn't stay with the song for long before segueing into "Hottentot," from Scofield's album A Go Go—the only non-Charles tune of the set. Still, the augmented ninth intro created the perfect linkage between the tunes, and got some enthusiastic applause from fans familiar with the 1997 collaboration with Medeski, Martin and Wood. Building a powerful chordal solo, it was Versace's ear for the perfect accompaniment—complementing while, at the same time, pushing—that helped drive Scofield's solo to its inevitable peak. Breaking down into a percussion solo, Scofield began layering loops as the group re-entered. Sometimes the loops worked, other times they felt a little disjointed, but that's the beauty of live performance—and another differentiator between this group's interpretation of the Charles material and those found on the album. As well-performed as the material on the album was, risk was at a minimum, whereas this group was right out there, taking chances and seeing where they would and could go with them.

One of the highlights of the album was the brief 90-second "Cryin' Time," a duet between Scofield and Goldings. Live, Versace was equally compelling, as it became an even more heartfelt duet, leading into a powerful rendition of "I Can't Stop Loving You" before finishing the set with the party-rousing title track from the album. Again, his ability to take the simplest blues change and expand it with more colourful harmonies demonstrates why he's one of the greatest guitarists of the past 30 years.

The audience's standing ovation seemed, at first, to be ignored by the house as the lights came up. But persistence paid off, the lights dimmed, and Scofield returned for a version of the bluesy "Night Time is the Right Time"—surprisingly playing a mean slide guitar. The album track featured Warren Haynes on slide, and Scofield expressed his admiration for Haynes, telling the audience that he'd picked up Haynes' instructional video and had been working on it for a couple of months. Scofield has a ways to go to reach the level of guitarists like Haynes on slide, but he managed to pull it off credibly. Still, while this might ultimately become another weapon in his arsenal, he's better off sticking with and continuing to evolve his own distinctive approach, as the physical restrictions of playing slide seemed to detract from his own personality.

That aside, the show was an outstanding success. The 1,100-seat casino theatre was nearly full, good news for the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, who sponsored the show as part of its Fall/Winter Concert series that will see saxophonist Toby Delius at the National Arts Centre's Fourth Stage on October 20 and Wynton Marsalis in a return engagement at the NAC's Southam Hall on October 23.

But of the six shows in the series, Scofield's will very likely go down as the best of the bunch. Proving that a studio recording is often just a set-up for greater exploration in a live context, in this case it may well be a truth that Scofield's touring tribute to Ray Charles is the band—and the approach—that he should have used in the first place.

Visit John Scofield on the web.

Photo Credit
Mike Bouchard, courtesy of www.jambands.ca.

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