On the second night at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis on Saturday night, American Jazz singer and songwriter Curtis Stigers promised he will not be talking about his beloved four dogs. Instead, he’ll be more focused, and will talk about the songs he’s chosen to re-record for his new album This Life, which features new renditions and interpretations of all his hit songs. As he explained it on stage, some of these songs are over 30 years old, and in all that time, he’s grown as a musician. He now plays in a Jazz Quartet (Matthew on piano, Cliff on on the upright bass, Paul on the drums, and John on the trumpets), he wants the song to also grow with him. He’s right, of course, these songs, such as “This Life” (aka the Sons of Anarky theme song), have a different life, when you hear them in his new arrangement.
If you saw Curtis on Friday night, you were treated to “Who’s That Writing” and The Beatles’ song “I Feel Fine”. For Saturday night, those songs were replaced by “Centerpiece” and Nick Lowe’s “Lately I’ve Let Things Slide”.
The funny thing about Nick Lowe is that for years Stigers thought “(What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” was an Elvis Costello song. When he found out it was actually written by Lowe, he became a massive fan. That song on The Bodyguardsoundtrack went on to sell over 45 million copies … giving Lowe a lot of money from royalties. So, yeah, Lowe loves Stigers.
Here is the thing about a Curtis Stigers show, it is part comedy/storytelling, and part jazz/pop live music. Every song has a story, and Stigers is more than happy to tell you all about it, giving us insights on why and how these songs were important to him.
My favorite story of the night was how the song “Swingin’ Down at Tenth and Main” came about. It’s a beautiful story about how jazz pianist Gene Harrishad retired and donated his grand piano to the Idanha Hotel, in Boise, Idaho. A young Stigers would hang out at the hotel lobby to watch Harris jam with local musicians. The underage Stigers would, if you’ll pardon the pun, drum up enough courage to bring his clarinet (and later his saxophone) and play in these jam sessions.
Doing his best Harris impression, Stigers yelled out, “Yeah, Baby! You sounded great! You keep practicing!!!”
A few years after Harris passed away, Stigers, flying on a local airline, was reminded of this amazing time, when he saw an article about the jazz festival that Harris created. He had the song in his head, and he wrote “Swingin’ Down at Tenth and Main” on the plane.
“I miss you, old friend,” Stigers concluded, “Thirty years later, I wanted Gene to be part of my new album.”
Like I said, all these songs appearing This Life, available on Pandemic Poodle Records, has deep meaning to Curtis.
By: Vu (vu@weheartmusic.com)