Adrian Cox Quintet/Webb City @ The 100 Club, London - June 1

Adrian Cox Quintet: Adrian Cox (clarinet, vocals); Denny Ilett (guitar, vocals); Joe Webb (piano); Will Sach (double bass); Sebastiaan de Krom (drums) + Rupert Cobb (trumpet, vocals)

Wynton Marsalis' In the Court of King Oliver opened the show, and what a show it would be! A packed 100 Club - seated, standing and a coterie of London's swing dancers - hung and swung on every note. Armstrong (Struttin' with Some Barbecue), Bechet (Egyptian Fantasy) and Hines (My Monday Date), three towering figures, Adrian Cox sure does know how to put on a show. Our clarinet maestro's band - guitarist Denny Ilett, pianist Joe Webb, NYC bassist Will Sach, and drummer Seb de Krom - romped, smiled and swung its way through a super-charged set. 

Cox's vocal on his own composition I Will Know When to Cry suggested our man is no mean composer in his own right, writing very much in the idiom. The 100 Club's audience cheered, hollered and whooped at every juncture, the musicianship of the highest order. The phrase 'head of steam' wouldn't do justice to the gig, far from it. Clarinet star, vocalist and force of nature, Mr. A. Cox, booked the venue, relentlessly plugged the event (being rewarded with a large turn out), putting together an ace band and duly whipping the audience into a frenzy. 

Guitarist Illet's relaxed comping and soloing impressed all night long, briefly taking the spotlight singing You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You, later the guitarist and his band mates being joined by Gun Hill Studios' boss Rupert Cobb to blow trumpet on Royal Garden Blues. Pianist Joe Webb and band bellowed a vocal refrain on Ellington's Jump for Joy as the Main Main, Adrian Cox, blew stonkingly good clarinet. To round off an amazing session, the Adrian Cox Quintet went out on When the Saints - Yeah! Yeah! - Go Marching In. Absolutely tremendous! 

                       

Set list: In the Court of King Oliver; My Monday Date; Egyptian Fantasy; Take Your Shoes Off, Baby; Struttin' with Some Barbeque; I Will Know When to Cry; You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You; Royal Garden Blues; Jump for Joy; When the Saints Go Marching In.  

Webb City: Joe Webb (piano); Dave Archer (guitar); Will Sach (double bass) + Ella Hohnen-Ford (vocals)

Earlier in the evening Webb City (aka the Joe Webb Trio) played to a packed house. Yes, no one but no one was hanging back in one of the many pubs off Oxford Street with the intention of wandering in later on, everyone wanted to be on the premises to hear one of today's great piano trios. 

Herbie's Tune for starters, the trio - Joe playing piano, guitarist Dave Archer and London-based New Yorker, Will Sach, bass - hit the ground running. Adopting the Tatum trio set up, ie huddled together as if on a stage the size of postage stamp, the telepathic togetherness, the smile-and-a-nod cues, this was something else! From Joe Webb's solo rendition of I'm Confessin' That I Love You to the trio's cookin' take on (I Would Do) Anything for You, Webb City took the place by storm. And to cap it off, Ella Hohnen-Ford was in the house. At Webb's invitation, Ella - what's in a name? - joined the boys to sing There's a Small Hotel. As a 'support act', these guys weren't too bad at all!           

Herbie's Tune; Cocktails for Two; Noah's Arc; Naptown Blues; I'm Confessin' That I Love You; Honeysuckle Rose; April in Paris; There's a Small Hotel; Flying Home; (I Would Do) Anything for You.  

During the interval and post-gig, DJ Kitty Liv entertained the full house spinning some  rhythm and blues discs, tempting more than a few swing dancers onto the floor. All in all, Adrian Cox couldn't have been anything other than delighted with the way the evening went. He'll do it again, that's for sure. Russell