Saturday Night @ the 606: Xhosa Cole & Alex Hitchcock play Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis & Johnny Griffin's Live at Mintons - June 12

Xhosa Cole, Alex Hitchcock (tenor saxes); Deschanel Gordon (piano); Joe Downard (bass); Shane Forbes (drums).

This afternoon the soccer players of Wales and Switzerland waltzed to a 1 - 1 draw. There was no waltzing at the '606' tonight - on or off the stand. 

This was a good old-fashioned tenor joust that had the protagonists going for it toe to toe. No quarter asked, no quarter given. The same rules that applied when Johnny Griffin and Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis (more or less) adhered to when they recorded the album tonight's session was based on.

Cole, Hitchcock, Hitchcock, Cole. They didn't hold back. This was no 'After you Claude' session but a fight to the finish. Who won? Well, at half-time us streamers had to leave so only those who made it in person can answer that but, after this first set it was too close to call. 

The audience was relatively subdued - no doubt following parliamentary advice to keep their mouths shut. However, at BSH HQ there were no such restrictions in place  and, after the Pier Six work out on Well You Needn't I was up on my feet a-whoopin' and a-hollerin'. Shouting and clapping, kicking aside the dead soldiers who'd began the night at 4.7% but now lay lifeless on the floor.

Topcat Daphne wasn't amused, to her this was just another Saturday night but to me it was anything but. Hard-swinging post bop by two of today's finest, paying tribute to two of yesterday's finest - aided and most definitely abetted by as good a rhythm section as you're likely to find this side of the Planet Mars.

Lance

Light and Lovely; Well You Needn't; In Walked Bud (or was it Bouncing with Bud?); Bingo Domingo; Isfahan; Woody 'n' You.