Wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a black suit jacket with a violet pocket silk, Curtis Stigers ambled onto the stage at Ronnie Scott’s holding his tenor saxophone and looking like he owned the place. Which he does, kind of.
The American singer, songwriter and hornsman extraordinaire has played Ronnie’s so many times throughout his 30-year-career he’s on first name terms with the staff; of all the jazz luminaries whose photos grace the venue’s walls, Stiger’s life-sized portrait has pride of place at reception.
“This is the world’s greatest jazz club, and I do not say that lightly,” he declares, his banter as chiselled as his jaw. “It is so nice not be stuck in my kitchen anymore.”
Having livestreamed from his home in Boise, Idaho, throughout the pandemic, Stigers’ relief at being back on the road, crooning, blowing fire, is palpable. No matter that he was at Ronnie’s just under a year ago. This time he’s here with This Life, his new 14th album, reconfiguring old favourites.
Nick Lowe’s (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, recorded by a long-haired Stigers in 1992 for the soundtrack to the movie The Bodyguard (“It sold 45 million copies, bought my ex-wife a lovely house and made Nick Lowe my friend”), is lent funky, free-wheeling piano by Matthew Fries and leaping trumpet lines by the diminutive John ‘Scrapper’ Schneider – whose habit of exiting stage-left to wander the auditorium, reappearing suddenly when needed, was remarked upon with a shrug.
The pop-soul smash You’re All That Matters To Me from Stigers’ eponymous 1991 debut, was transformed into something intimate and nuanced, even if the soprano sax Stigers plays on the album track didn’t materialise.
Love ballad Keep Me From the Cold came stripped down and honest and, quipped Stigers, in tandem with Ronnie’s air conditioner kicking in; the jazz-blues shuffle of Swingin’ Down at 10th & Main nodded to late jazz pianist Gene Harris and his influential Tuesday jam sessions in Boise, and allowed each player to showcase his chops.
Such fresh makeovers honoured the commitment made by Stigers to his younger self, to the twentysomething the Arista label tried to force down a pop-rock route until Stigers freed himself and realigned with jazz, vowing to focus on artistic growth.
This Life, Stigers’s theme tune to the cult TV series Sons of Anarchy, was invested with a swampy, Dr John-style groove; jazz staple Summertime had a reggae-lilt inspired by The Young Jazz Lions, the band Stigers fronted as a teenager.
A cover of Dylan’s Things Have Changed, and we’re over time. No matter: “Value for money,” he said with a grin, gifting us his 1991 megahit I Wonder Why, with gospel touches on piano, as encore.
