Scofield captures legend's earthy groove
The Ottawa Citizen
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Page: A9
Section: City
Byline: Alex Hutchinson
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

John Scofield rode into town last night on the tail end of
the wave of Ray Charles mania that followed the soul legend's death last summer.

In front of a nearly full house at Casino du Lac-Leamy's 1,100-seat theatre, the jazz guitarist played material from his recent album of Charles' music, part of the concert series marking the 25th anniversary of the Ottawa International Jazz Festival.

Scofield did a good job of walking the middle ground between
slavish imitation and the unrecognizable abstraction that sometimes hurts jazz tributes, thanks partly to the fact that the heart of Charles' music -- the earthy groove that defined the soul genre -- runs deep within Scofield's own playing.

Scofield brought a muscular young rhythm section, with bassist John Benitez's baggy jeans and Fubu T-shirt and drummer Steve Haas's knitted skull-cap and soul patch highlighting the band's generation gap. Haas's crackling backbeat drove the music forward, while organist Gary Versace floated above with silky backgrounds that sounded as good as the Raelettes and a simple but lyrical solo on You Don't Know Me.

But despite the youth of the rhythm section, it was Scofield
himself who was pushing and prodding familiar soul classics like Hit the Road Jack in new directions, with tight arrangements and solos that avoided simple riffing.

Scofield's tribute album, That's What I Say, hit stores in June and featured an impressive parade of guest vocalists ranging from Dr. John to John Mayer. This left roomy shoes to fill for Boston-based Meyer Statham, who has been handling the vocals (and occasional trombone riffs) for the tour that kicked off last month in New York City.

Statham's warm baritone seemed almost too smooth for the material on the opening rendition of I Got a Woman, but as the show went on, he started to step out a bit. By the time the band returned with a funkified reprise of the opener late in the program, Statham was growling and running up and down the scale with gospel flourishes.

But in the end, it was Scofield's soloing chops that fans came to
hear, and he showed his full range of invention, from the sustained bop lines on Just Me, Just You to the driving funk of the I Got a Woman reprise, which ended with a Scofield trademark: a long and playful romp with distortion and feedback pedals, producing a glorious jumble of moans and whistles that even Charles, in his infinite creativity, could never have foreseen.