Satisfaction, not guaranteed. When the jazz saxophonist Tim Ries performs Rolling Stones material in inspiring, non-standard ways Saturday at Toronto’s Koerner Hall and Monday at Montreal’s Tanna Schulich Hall, he’ll do so not only with Rolling Stones bassist Darryl Jones and singer Bernard Fowler on-stage, but with the full blessings of band members Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts. All five of the artists appear on The Rolling Stones Project and Stones World: The Rolling Stones Project II, Ries’s world-jazz adventures in Jagger-Richards compositions, from 2005 and 2008, respectively. (Mick Jagger, on harmonica, appears on the second volume only.)
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Tim Ries Stones World Live: Jumpin' Jack Flash

“I would say it was as much as a tip of the hat as I could possibly get,” says Ries, a New York resident who teaches music part-time at the University of Toronto. “They’re so supportive as to actually play on it.”

Ries has been with the Stones for more than a decade, appearing on the group’s studio albums and tours. On a flight in 1999 from Atlanta to Los Angeles, during a break in the English band’s tour, Ries approached drummer Watts, a jazz fiend, about recording a few tracks for a project involving reimagined Stones music. Watts was keen. Moreover, he suggested that Richards and Wood might wish to participate, and took it upon himself to ask them. “A few minutes later I looked up and saw Charlie, Keith and Ronnie walking towards me,” recalled Ries. “I thought I was going to be fired.”

Far from it. “We’re all in it, mate,” Keith told Ries, much to his relief. “We’ll do it.”

The project took off from there, eventually involving 25 guests, including Norah Jones and Sheryl Crow. The results of those sessions and subsequent ones will be heard at Koerner Hall, where Ries appears with guitarist Ben Monder and the University of Toronto Big Band, in addition to Fowler and Jones (a sideman to Sting and Miles Davis).

Stones fans, you would think, will be part of the crowd. How will they react to a salsa-danced Under My Thumb? A flamenco-fashioned Jumpin’ Jack Flash? A dreamy bebopped Miss You? “What I don’t assume is that I can make everybody happy,” says Ries, who keeps true to the original melodies, but alters them harmonically and rhythmically. “It’s hard enough to make myself happy. I do this for me. This is the kind of music I love, mixing cultures – African blues and flamenco.”

That the Stones themselves are happy with Ries’s limber interpretations should be no surprise: Watts leads his own jazz orchestra; Richards’s Wingless Angels CDs explore Jamaican folk music; you could even look back to the Moroccan excursion of Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka. And anyone who has ever heard the wild Carlos Santana-like flight to the second half of Can’t You Hear Me Knocking knows the Rolling Stones can move in mysterious ways.

As for those who might expect your standard Brown Sugars and Lady Janes, Ries reasons that some of them will be in for pleasant surprises. “Stones fans like raw music,” he explains, “and great jazz has that same pure quality.”

The Stones world was gently rocked recently with the rumours that the dormant band would reunite for a tour. Officially, nothing has been confirmed. “I wish I knew,” said Ries, who hasn’t heard of any plans. “It would be great to get a phone call saying, ‘Would you like to do it?’ Of course, I’d love to.”

For his own shows, there’s the attractive chance of turning Stones fans on to jazz and world music. “You’re pouring your heart and soul into every tune. If you can get people in the building, and they can hear that, it’s nice to see people who are opening their minds to it.”

Saturday at Koerner Hall, Toronto; Feb. 14 at Tanna Schulich Hall, Montreal.