Gig review: Curtis Stigers, Edinburgh Queen’s Hall

Curtis Stigers enjoyed considerable success as an MOR rock star in the 1990s (including a huge hit with his cover of Nick Lowe’s Peace, Love and Understanding from the movie Bodyguard, which he reprised at the end of this concert by way of a dedication to the late Whitney Houston), but frustration with record company politics and lack of artistic control eventually sent him back to his starting point in jazz.

Fair to say that the singer hasn’t done too badly in his new career.

He is not an improvising jazz singer in the mould of, say, Mark Murphy or Kurt Elling. His stylistically approach is rooted in a combination of rhythm and blues and pop ballads, with a leavening of jazz phrasing and rhythm, a combination that proved both entertaining and effective.

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That mixture was reflected in his choice of material, which alternated uptempo rhythm and blues tunes with poignant ballads (he likes sad songs).

Highlights included back-to-back interpretations of Bob Dylan’s Things Have Changed and Richard Thompson’s Waltzing’s For Dreamers, proof in themselves that he knows a great song when he hears one. A rather splashy version of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy, with just the trio for company, delved deepest into jazz idioms, but didn’t really suit the song.

Songs by Eddie Floyd and Steve Earle broadened the stylistic frame of reference into soul and country, and he included one of his own songs, You Got The Fever, amid the well-chosen covers.

Rating: ***

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