Sometimes the best gigs are the low-profile, no-frills sets, the ones that don’t charge a cover or require a jacket. Take the respected Hammond B-3 organist Brian Charette, whose dry wit and quick keys fit just as well crammed in the corner of a bar in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Though the Grammy-nominated Charette often plays with his trio the Mighty Grinders, Thursday night found him in good company with the guitarist Matt Chertkoff and drummer Joe Abba. Throughout the show, at Bar Chord, the sidemen proved capable in developing and sustaining grooves, rather than chasing Charette’s lead.
The organist’s fingers blurred, hurried yet nimble, and appeared at times to bend beyond their breaking point. They swept across the keys as Charette sat relaxed, planted and wearing a sleepy grimace beneath his newsboy cap. He’d cue his band with a year — “1983!” — then break into soulful interpretations of covers from the last handful of decades, some obscure, others faintly familiar. For a few bucks in the tip bucket, they’d even play you “a taste of Iron Maiden.”
A playful rendition of “If This Is It,” the Huey Lewis & The News hit, marked Charette’s first break of the night. “Oh my god, have I smoked all your cigarettes?” he asked Abba with faint concern. The drummer handed his bandleader a Parliament as they walked outside, as casually as they had arrived.
