Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

And below this hub of activity, in the basement confines of Pizza Express Jazz Club, a calm prevailed as a quartet of artists on the Dune record label conjured up beautiful music. Music so good that you slightly caught your breath and a warmness emanated from somewhere deep inside you.

The setting helped provide some fuel for this. The jury is out on whether jazz should be played to well-heeled diners or whether this relegates jazz to mere background fodder (the obvious counter argument being the revenue this type of setting brings in). However the basement club’s tight, intimate confines and darkness, lit only by a tiny stage, helped set the mood. For the performance, a red curtain was tightly pulled together, hiding the stairway and the gallery of black and white photographs of jazz musicians.

The scene was then set for Gary Crosby to lead a quartet for a tribute to the late and very great John Coltrane, playing a small selection of the man’s ballads. Crosby is a bassist extraordinaire, co-owner of the influential Dune records, and a player of quality music for at least twenty years. And as his touching, deep, vibrating basslines brought a smile to the audience, Denys Baptiste, a previous Mercury Award Nominee, easily stepped into Coltrane’s shoes (no mean task) playing the saxophone, with a warm, engaging glow.

Baptiste has a humble and easy going nature which was evident in his playing. He can easily twist and turn his soprano around the delight that is ‘My Favourite Things’ with competent ease, giving the audience something to hum along to. This simple but excellent execution was mirrored by the drummer Rod Youngs and Crosby himself. They led the band on a merry (jazz) dance across Coltrane’s classic Lush Life, Bye Bye ‘Blackbird’, ‘You Don’t What Love Is’ and ‘All or Nothing’. There are few musicians that can do this, with many preferring to mask their playing with technical prowess rather than appealing to the audience.

The disappointing exception to this was vocalist Eska Mtungwazi who came to the stage with a glowing reputation. Unfortunately this reputation was left at home for this performance as her croaky voice struggled on ‘My Favourite Things’ and the lyrics were forgotten for ‘Lush Life’. The latter is a particular favourite of mine. The late writer James Hamilton wrote an excellent piece on this record in Straight No Chaser magazine, which helped influence my decision to become a writer. Hamilton wrote about how the world stopped when he first heard the track in an old jukebox in a remote village in Southern France. He envisaged a world where people were equally moved by the record, and what a potential difference this could make to life. A similar feeling was evoked when the band played a brilliant version of ‘Lush Life’, leading the audience into a gentle walk through pleasant pastures.

As ever with concerts this good, there is a magic moment. And here the best I have left until last - the pianist Andrew McCormack. How good is he? Incredible. McCormack serenaded the audience with effortless ease, playing music of such sheer beauty that it was hard not to, just for a second, have a tear form in your eye.

In summary, a brilliant band, a dodgy vocalist, an intimate setting and some moments of magic by McCormack.