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Photos by Debra Rothenberg

We got to spend a few minutes with the very charming Sugaray Rayford in the green room before the show, and his sense of ease and humanity shined through in close quarters as much as it does on stage.

We joined a sparse crowd on a Monday night at Brooklyn Bowl, undoubtedly due to the beautiful day we just enjoyed, probably the first since last October. Nevertheless, a true professional, Sugaray blasted out his message loud, clear and boogieing. Renowned drummer Bernard Purdie, wisely, was in the audience.

Someplace in his career, Sugaray must have taken some lessons from Bobby Rush’s dancing girls, because part of his dance routine is a hip shake worthy of those bootilicious gals, but make no mistake, he’s a terrific bandleader and called the shots throughout the set, directing and egging the band on for nearly two hours.

During the set, Rayford explained how he chose his band. Looking neither for soul nor blues players exclusively, Rayford chose guys who had experience and can play anything at the drop of a hat. Without a doubt, he fulfilled his wish, with keyboardist Drake Shining (Deep Purple), guitarist Alastair Greene (The Alan Parsons Project), drummer Lavell Jones (Lucky Peterson), bassist Allen Markel (The Insomniacs), and Aaron Liddard on sax and Giles Straw on trumpet (both from Amy Winehouse).

Whether delivering a funked-up version of “Born Under a Bad Sign” or the call-and-response with Drake Shining on “You and I” (from his new album, Somebody Save Me), Rayford has a knack shared by most great artists: he reimagines songs and delivers us something familiar in a fresh light, like seeing the Grand Canyon at dawn for the first time—you know the landscape, but it’s unforgettably transformed.

Highlights for this writer included a fast and hard version of Little Milton’s “Grits Ain’t Groceries,” and B.B. King’s “Don’t Answer the Door,” which featured a long and particularly breathtaking instrumental break. Rayford’s vocals are so powerful that he doesn’t just back off the mic when he lets loose, but he turns completely away, facing the bassist Allen Markel, off to his left, and still comes on strong. Another standout song by another big man, Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” finished up the evening, much to my regret. At the risk of mixing Broadway with Sugaray, I could have danced all night.

—Suzanne Cadgène