158: Curtis Stigers

Curtis Stigers got his big break as a young man in the early 90s, with a top ten pop hit (1991’s “Wonder Why”), followed by a series of soul-pop records. Around that time he also recorded a version of Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” for The Bodyguard soundtrack, which sold in the 10s of millions of copies. That is to say, Curtis got his start in the deep of the pool, swimming with the sharks.

Stigers has a soulful voice, a direct approach to storytelling both as a songwriter and an interpreter, and he plays good saxophone too. He came out of Boise, Idaho, and was mentored somewhat incredibly by the gospel and jazz pianist Gene Harris. So maybe it was only a matter of time before he turned his heart back towards his first love, jazz. After living in New York and launching himself as a pop act, he made two somewhat improbable decisions in a row, first pivoting away from pop and towards making jazz records, and then moving home to his hometown in Idaho, from where he has operated since 2003.

His new album, Gentleman was designed to be a record of the moment. It features a collection of songs that speak to his own life and also the general conversation around what it means to be a sensitive, well mannered, responsible man in today’s world. It’s an important conversation, one that we’ll continue to have, but one that seems almost nostalgic compared to what we’re dealing with right now. At the last minute, Stigers added the song “Shut Ins” to the record. It’s a song that behaves both as a kind of undiscovered classic, and also as eerily right on time.

Here he talks about promoting new music in the midst of a pandemic, what it means to be a gentleman, how hanging out in a hotel lobby in Boise changed his life, which lessons he learned from Michael Brecker & Gene Harris, and the difference between a tie and a cravat.

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