Paul Pigat and the Smoking Jackets showcase the guitar master's swing-jazz, jump-blues side
Better known for his hillbilly-rockabilly outfit, Cousin Harley, the Vancouver artist journeys back to the elegant-yet-greasy ‘50s at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts
Paul Pigat’s The Smoking Jackets has been an on-again, off-again project for the past 30 years.
Paul Pigat and the Smoking Jackets play the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts on February 4 at 7:30 pm
“I’M COVERED IN dust,” reports Paul Pigat, on the line from his Downtown Eastside workshop. That’s not from poring through the archives in search of tunes for his upcoming concert and recording session with the Smoking Jackets, however. Instead, he’s been slaving over a belt sander as part of a hobby that’s becoming an ever-larger part of his musical life: building guitars.
Although Pigat has been dressing his own frets and cleating his own cracks for decades, building his own instruments from scratch is a relatively new endeavour, and he approaches it with the same combination of science and artistry that he applies to his work on-stage. His mid-century-modern Sputnik designs have won praise from some big names in the luthiery world, and he’s also building a reputation as a latter-day interpreter of electric-guitar pioneer Leo Fender’s groundbreaking Telecaster design. That’s not an easy thing to do in Vancouver, where his workshop neighbour Warren Murfitt and ace repair technician Nicole Alosinac are both renowned for their creative variations on that iconic six-string, instrument of choice for artists as diverse as Keith Richards, Bruce Springsteen, Buck Owens, and the late Toronto jazz legend Ed Bickert.
When we talk, Pigat is working on a 1950s-style “blackguard” Telecaster commissioned as a birthday present for a local rockabilly guitarist. (It might be a surprise gift, so we’ll mention no names.) He also recently built one for blues-rock bandleader Ryder Bachman, who you’d think would have his choice of primo gear from his famous uncle Randy’s extensive collection. But when Pigat takes the stage with the Smoking Jackets at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts this weekend, he won’t be playing one of his own builds.
“Whenever I pick up a Telecaster,” he admits, “it turns into hillbilly country.”
Not that there’s anything wrong with that: hillbilly country and rockabilly are the focus of Pigat’s best-known band, Cousin Harley. The Smoking Jackets are another animal altogether, though. An on-again, off-again project for the guitarist since he moved from Toronto to Victoria some 30 years ago, the Jackets are his look into the elegant-yet-greasy world of 1950s swing jazz and jump blues, which demands that he use a nice, fat 1950s archtop, like something T-Bone Walker or Joe Pass might have played.
“I always figure this is a retro band, because it was a million years ago when I first had it together,” Pigat admits, laughing. “And the two guitars I’ve used the most with the Smoking Jackets are my Gibson ES-350 and an 18-inch Silvertone, which is very much like a [Kay] Barney Kessel.
“That started off as an acoustic guitar,” he adds. “A friend of mine had it on his wall. I convinced him to sell it to me, and then I promptly electrified it. I might bust that out; it’s been a while since that’s been played.”
True guitar obsessives also need to know that Pigat intends to play at least part of one Smoking Jackets set solo, and for that portion of the evening he’ll bring out a relatively recent find: a 90-year-old Gibson L-5 archtop, the instrument of choice for most swing-era professionals. It’s as close to a time machine as anything he owns.
“It’s funny,” Pigat notes, “because when I start playing that guitar… I mean, I’m no Eddie Lang, but that more jaunty swing rhythm just seems to happen, regardless of whether I want it to or not. So I just think the guitar is making me do it.”
Of course, beautiful guitars and inspired musicianship are to be expected with any Pigat show, whether he’s in Merle Travis mode with Boxcar Campfire, hot-rodding hillbilly boogie with Cousin Harley, or getting wacky in his duet with Toronto-based six-string maniac Kevin Breit. The Smoking Jackets differ from the norm in a couple of key ways, most notably in that for this show, at least, it’s a relatively big band. At the Shadbolt, Pigat will be joined by saxophonists Cory Weeds and Jerry Cook, trumpet player Derry Byrne, and keyboardist Chris Gestrin, along with the guitarist’s regular Cousin Harley rhythm section of bassist Jeremy Holmes and drummer Jesse Cahill.
The presence of Weeds suggests that the aforementioned Smoking Jackets record will be released on the saxophonist and impresario’s Cellar Live label, and that is in fact correct.
“We’ve known each other for a long time, and of course Cory and Jess Cahill are old, old friends,” Pigat explains. “And this was at least two or three years ago that he wanted me to do a record, but of course with the pandemic and whatnot the timing didn’t work out—and then this just dropped into my lap.
“The few times I’ve had a full. horn section with the Smoking Jackets I’ve really had fun,” he adds. “It’s always great when you’ve got more than one horn, when the opportunity arises. So I just went ‘Well, I’ve got to do it.’”
Perhaps counterintuitively, the expanded lineup allows Pigat more room to get creative on his instrument, as he doesn’t have to worry about holding down the chord changes or filling up sonic space to such an extent. It’s also a chance for him to stretch out in a totally different direction: vocally. The guitarist cites Billie Holiday and Tony Bennett as his role models when it comes to singing swing and blues, and he’s looking forward to tapping into some of their inspired elegance.
“I’m not as young and beautiful as I once was,” he says, looking back on his early days as an aspiring crooner. “But hopefully I can sing a lot better!”
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