Ottawa musician Jeff Rogers celebrates his new album, Dream Job

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Jeff Rogers Band

8 p.m. Saturday, Dec.9, Azrieli Studio, Nationwide Arts Centre

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Tickets at nac-cna.ca

When Jeff Rogers arrived at a studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama to document his third solo album, the home band wasn’t certain he had the chops to maintain up with them. In spite of everything, they have been seasoned studio gamers identified for his or her work with legendary acts similar to Little Richard, Booker T. Jones and the Staple Singers. 

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In a current interview, Rogers recalled the musicians’ well mannered suggestion that he transfer to a different room whereas they tackled the charts he offered. 

However he couldn’t take his eyes off the nine-foot Baldwin grand. “Nah, I’m going to play on the actual grand piano,” he thought, taking a seat on the instrument and launching right into a jam. There was a way of reduction within the room because the others noticed he couldn’t solely play with one of the best of them, but additionally sang like a hen in a honeyed voice dripping with soul.

4 days later, 9 songs have been within the can, forming the idea of Dream Job, the stellar new recording that can be celebrated Saturday with a live performance on the Nationwide Arts Centre’s Azrieli Studio. 

For Rogers, a busy musician who’s on monitor to hit 250 reveals this 12 months, the whirlwind expertise marked his first go to to the legendary music city the place everybody from Bob Dylan to Kenny Rogers has recorded. “There’s something distinctive about going to a spot that has a sound and a historical past,” mentioned Rogers, who’s 43 and has made music his profession. “It’s kinda like there’s a groove that’s within the wooden of the constructing.”

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In fact, with a backing band of Muscle Shoals luminaries similar to Kelvin Holly (identified for his work with Little Richard, Bobby Bland), Clayton Ivey (The Staple Singers, Thelma Houston), Justin Holder (Keb Mo’, Delbert McClinton) and Shonna Tucker (Booker T. Jones, Drive-By-Truckers), the entire mission was elevated, leaving Rogers free to concentrate on giving his finest efficiency. 

It was an analogous story, by the best way, for this 12 months’s album by Sherri Harding, one other Ottawa singer who recorded in Muscle Shoals. The widespread denominator in each instances is the veteran Ottawa musician, Dick Cooper of the Cooper Brothers, who had gotten to know a photographer/tour supervisor in Muscle Shoals via social media by easy advantage of the very fact they share the identical title. The 2 grew to become pals and Cooper paid a go to, scouting out studios within the city immortalized in songs by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Drive-By Truckers and the Revivalists.

Again at house, Cooper and Rogers had been co-writing songs for a few years. “We had an awesome working association,” Rogers mentioned. “He introduced lyrics and I put music to it, or I had a musical concept and he put lyrics to it. We might chat about themes, and he would come again with a set of lyrics. Then we might tweak some issues and make it match my voice. It was an awesome forwards and backwards.”

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The ensuing album, with its candy, easy sound and tunes which can be each melodic and muscular, is already gaining discover, together with a current characteristic by Billboard Canada highlighting the music, Lock and Key, because the monitor of the week. “It is a scorching soul/blues romp, that includes searing guitar, lusty horns and Rogers’s virile vocals,” declared the net journal.

Rogers was thrilled on the shout-out. Though he’s a preferred performer on the native bar circuit and is a member of no fewer than 9 gigging bands, recognition exterior town has been restricted. And whereas there’s no scarcity of alternatives for proficient musicians like Rogers to play acquainted songs by big-name artists, the urge for food for unique materials will not be the identical.

“I made a profession enjoying covers and I’m snug doing that, however I now have three albums of unique music that I’m a part of, with varied bands that don’t essentially get to journey that a lot,” Rogers mentioned. With a spouse and a one-year-old daughter in his life, too, it makes it powerful to leap in a van and journey for weeks at a time, though he’d like to make his means throughout the pond. 

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“I’d actually like this album to achieve new audiences so I can play my songs extra usually,” he mentioned. “I can all the time play different folks’s music in random locations and that may get me fed, however I’m on the lookout for methods to play my very own music extra usually. And I actually like European tradition, particularly wine, so I’m trying to go to locations which have old-world wines.”

As for Saturday’s live performance, Rogers has assembled a top-notch band of Ottawa-area musicians, together with powerhouse vocalists Sherri Harding and Rebecca Noelle, funkified guitarist Ben Di Millo, the crack rhythm part of drummer Jamie Holmes and bassist J.P. Lapensee, together with Clayton Connell on the Hammond B3 organ, and an all-star horn part comprised of Ed Lister (trumpet), Petr Cancura (saxophone) and Mark Ferguson (trombone). Particular visitor is Dick Cooper, whereas Toronto-based Jenie Thai will provide a gap set.

Describing the band as Ottawa’s A-team, Rogers is able to rejoice. “It’s going to be one of the best present I’ve ever placed on of my very own music in my profession up up to now, for certain,” he mentioned.

lsaxberg@postmedia.com

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