JOHN SCOFIELD AND THE PIETY STREET BAND . . . LIVE AT THE REGATTABAR

For me, the first surprise related to last night’s show at the Regattabar in Cambridge was that I was there. John Scofield and the Piety Street Band sold out all four of their Friday-Saturday weekend performances. Not the biggest fan of Scofield (I have only one of his albums on my iPod, and it’s not among my favorites), I had taken a pass on the first call from a friend organizing fellow guitarists for an outing to the gig. But when an extra ticket became available at almost the last minute, I decided there could be worse ways to spend an hour or so on a Saturday evening, so . . .

So . . . the third surprise was how much I enjoyed the second surprise, which was the type of music that Scofield and his band performed: a rousing 75-minute set of Gospel tunes. A legendary jazz guitarist, Scofield has obviously returned close to his bluesy roots, and he and his fellow Piety Street-ers (Jon Cleary on vocals and keyboards, George Porter, Jr. on bass and Ricky Fataar on drums) gave the packed house a truly engaging show. Apparently the band’s name derives from the name of the street where their recording studio is located in New Orleans . . . which is good to know because there was no pie-in-the-sky piousness to their playing: this was “roots” music, pure and simple—bluesy, funky, and rockin’. While there was no air of irreverence about the band’s performance of traditional Gospel songs (sung mostly by Cleary, whose terrific voice is matched by his awesome piano chops), the choice of music seemed mostly an excuse—a really good excuse—for Scofield and company to stretch out and play multiple variations on the blues.

The dominant musical inflection of the night, then, was unabashedly pentatonic . . . but just when Scofield appeared to have locked himself into that boxy groove, he would bedazzle the there-to-be-bedazzled audience—mostly middle-aged male guitar players by the cut of them (. . . or us!)—with a “How-did-he-do-that?” Houdini-like escape clause (or phrase) pulled from his well-stocked gig bag of jazz tricks. Given that Scofield and company could play such “roots” music in their sleep, the fourth surprise of the night was that there was nothing perfunctory about their performance: they were clearly “feeling it” . . . and so was the audience.

If I were a guessing man, I’d guess that seeing John Scofield and the Piety Street Band “live and in person” could be more “vital” than listening to their recently-released CD, Piety Street, with its cookie-cutter 5-minute versions of the songs that they gave extended treatment to last night. Still, I might just add that album to my iPod: that sort of music doesn’t get old . . .


Postscript (9:30 a.m.):
I just found on YouTube a really interesting documentary video about the making of the Piety Street album: check it out!