Local pianist performs Elton John

Special to Wesson News

            It wasn’t Elton John that rocked Brookhaven last month, but Brookhaven pianist Blake Scafidel could have fooled a lot of people who didn’t know better at the Haven Theater on October 23 where he played two one hour 45 minute tribute performances to the legendary British rocker.

            From John’s Bennie and the Jets that opened the concerts to his closings with John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Scafidel gave his local audiences a pretty good taste of what Elton John himself might have done.

            Bill Perkins, who follows Brookhaven’s musician extraordinaire, said Scafidel “obviously has been grooming himself to live and breathe Elton John on the piano and also emulating Elton’s graciousness and stage presence.”

            On stage at the Haven, Scafidel personified John not only with his piano playing and singing, but in appropriate costume and style.  Scadfidel also found other local talent to help.  The Bridge Band, including guitarist Tyler Bridge, percussionist Nick Bridge, Ron Donegan on drums, Shelley Smith on keyboard and Scott Shaw on bass, backed him up.  Smith supported him as well as a vocalist, along with his wife and son, Carrene and Jason Scafidel, and Lillian White and Isabella Conn from Southwest Community College.

            Scafidel called his Elton John tribute “Yellow Brick Boulevard,” recalling John’s name for his own show, “Yellow Brick Road.”

            “As a pianist, I am a fan of many other pianists, but Elton John has been a favorite,” says Scafidel.  “I have admired his amazing capacity to build incredible shows over many years.”

            Scafidel started thinking about creating an Elton John tribute several years ago, but didn’t start working on it seriously until Brookhaven Little Theater approached him in February about doing one of its live performances during the 2025 season.  He acquired the videos and edited them for the screen vignettes that were center stage and side stage backdrops accompanying the music.  He asked Tyler Bridge to work as music director.  Brookhaven Little Theater handled the technical aspects of the show, including lighting, and the marketing, including publicity and ticket sales. 

            Although Scafidel says “Yellow Brick Boulevard” was created to honor Brookhaven, his hometown, he has visions of taking his tribute to Elton John to other venues – as many as a half a dozen next year, perhaps Jackson, Natchez and McComb.  Don’t be surprised either if he is back on stage with other shows at the Haven.

Born in Brookhaven in 1968, Scafidel started his career journey at the tender age of six when he told his parents he wanted to study piano, following in the footsteps of his mother, the musician in the family, who was an accomplished pianist and the musical accompanist at Central Baptist Church, the Brookhaven congregation in which he grew up.

“I was never into sports like other kids,” he recalls. “I played the piano in church, at school and in local talent shows.”

After his parents separated, he left Southwest Mississippi briefly in the 1980s to live with his father in the Dallas, Texas, area, where he earned his Graduate Equivalency high school diploma. He returned to Mississippi in 1986 to study music at Co-Lin until 1988 and then at Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi, until 1991 before starting a 30-year career as a church musician..

In 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic made the financial life of church musicians even tougher, Scafidel moved to the secular world full time. Outside the religious community, Scafidel says he has been a “late bloomer” in pop music influenced by Elton John and Bruce Hornstein.  He maintains a studio and an events center with a stage where he can perform for private audiences at his home in the Breckenridge section of Brookhaven off Highway 84 west going towards Natchez.  He performs regularly at Magnolia Blues in Brookhaven and continues to expand his public appearances as a piano soloist in new venues.  A public website (blakescafidel.com) and Facebook page (Blake Scafidel Music) tout his performances and sell his albums.