Mornington Lockett Quartet with Henry Lowther livestreaming from the 606 - May 22

(Screenshot by Lance)

Mornington Lockett (tenor sax); Henry Lowther (trumpet/flugel); Mike Gorman (piano); Geoff Gascoyne (bass); Mark Fletcher (drums).

One of the good old good ones from the Joe Henderson pad, a number beloved of jammers and hard-boppers - Recorda Me got things moving. Lockett doesn't go along with the theory that less is more he's a firm adherent of the school that says more is more and, in his case it's true. He played it every which way including, most importantly, the right way. The crowd actually present showed their appreciation, after some encouragement, by applauding the solos. I'd begun to think they'd forgotten how to do so the doors having been closed for so long.

(Screenshot by Lance)

Henry Lowther, a young 79 (everyone born after me is young) belied his years as the band, now a quintet, took another Henderson humdinger, Home Stretch, on a madcap gallop that culminated in exchanges of sixes rather than the expected fours. All five got into the act with Lowther the more restrained, albeit no less effective in his solos unlike Morny who took the altissimo range of the tenor to heights where even sopraninos would fear to tread.

(Screenshot by Lance)

Henry removed his cardigan and switched to flugel for a spine-tingling interpretation of I Fall in Love Too Easily. Sensitive backing from piano, bass and maybe brushes, suggested that if someone had dropped a pin they'd have been escorted from the premises for rowdy behaviour - nobody dropped anything, except maybe their jaw at the sheer tonal beauty obtainable from a piece of bent metal piping!

Lee Morgan's Ceora followed. Lowther said he thought it was a drink you used to get at the cinema (Kia-Ora) instead it was a nice, rather hypnotic, dreamy kind of tune which the next one wasn't. This was another Joe H - Jinirikisha.  Inspired, we were told, by a trip to Japan.

(Screenshot by Lance)

The final number - for those of us who were streaming - was Cole Porter's So in Love*.  It had a Latin, slightly jazz rocky feel to it - or was that Porter turning over in his grave? If it was, then shame upon him, they'd just given his maudlin opus a new lease of life.

And so ended another great livestream from the 606. For those who'd actually made it to the club in person this was only the first set - let's hope  their second set was better than that of Sunderland's second half this afternoon when they departed from the play-offs but hey, that's only football, this is music - a whole different ball game! Lance

* Lockett asked the audience if they knew which show So In Love came from. Nobody knew. I was yelling "Kiss Me Kate" but, as I was 250 miles away he didn't hear me although, if my neighbours did I'll be getting some knowing glances tomorrow!