For Piety Street, guitarist John Scofield assembles a New Orleans band that includes Jon Cleary, John Boutte and George Porter, Jr. and honors one of the city’s crucial musics—gospel. “Although I don’t embrace any formal religion, who can deny the power of these messages?” Scofield writes in the album’s liner notes, and there’s no real dissonance between his beliefs and his conceptual decision. A friend used to say that she was saved again each year when she went to Jazz Fest, and here Scofield presents gospel and she and many who visit the Gospel Tent hear it—as a musical text, not as a message. With this lineup, rounded out by Ricky Fataar on drums, they groove compellingly, and Cleary and Boutte sing the songs as if they believe, even if Scofield doesn’t. In short, Piety Street is completely entertaining.

The odd element in the album is Scofield, who seems to have come to New Orleans and joined a really good band. The voices of the songs aren’t his, the songs aren’t his, and the grooves aren’t (obviously) his. Undoubtedly, he played a major role in shaping the pieces and directing the proceedings, but you don’t hear that. You hear his percussively plucked guitar stepping to the fore on a number of outros, and he solos through the first two-thirds of “The Old Ship of Zion,” but more often than not, he’s simply a really good guitarist in a really good band. The religious object that seems to motivate his piety in New Orleans music, and he immerses himself in it for the occasion. That makes a lot of sense; after all, what is Jazz Fest but a gathering of the faithful, but it means Piety Street reflects on Scofield in an indirect way.