Rob Luft @ Cheltenham Jazz Festival. The Daffodil, May 4.

Rob Luft (guitar), Joe Wright (sax), Joe Webb (keyboards), Tom McCredie (bass), Mark Michelle (drums).

(Review by Steve T)

This was one of those posh bashes like what Zoe Gilby and Andy Champion played last year or the year before.

Pink sparkling wine on arrival, a tomato cut up with a few salady bits chucked on for starter, sea bass or - if you play the I don't like fish card - chicken in a delectable sauce that Mrs T let me taste, and a very lemony dessert. At £65 a head, do the maths.

A table shared with three other couples could have been tricky but proved to be the best table in the place, so all credit to them including, would you believe, a Chester le Street lad and fellow Old Johnstonian.

As one of the emerging stars of British Jazz, there's lots of pressure on Rob Luft, and comparisons with John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola and Paco De Lucia can only ratchet up the expectation, but confident in his significant ability, he doesn't seem phased at all.

A set I believe taken entirely from his highly recommended debut solo album Riser opened with Beware, allowing saxophonist Joe Wright to take the lead for the first half of the piece before Luft came in with the first of many blistering displays.

There's lots of African influences in his compositions which he's clearly and justifiably proud of, but he must also know his progressive rock and his Jazz-rock, with lots of short, sharp blasts of breath-taking virtuosity worthy of McLaughlin with Miles or Mahavishnu.

It's a measure of how fantastic the line-up at Cheltenham was this year that this gig was opposite Dinosaur at another venue, and with ace drummer Corrie Dick a member of both, it fell to Mark Michelle to dep, and you'd never spot the join.

But the standard of musicianship was top notch all-round, with several on my table singling out Joe Webb on keys, but Rob Luft, along with Dinosaurs Laura Jurd, is one of the young British Jazz musicians to watch.

Incidentally, the jam session at Hotel du Vin later the same night featured Francis Tulip - another up and coming Jazz guitarist - in the house band. 

Steve T.