The Adrian Cox Trio @ The Pizza Express, Soho - Jan. 18

Adrian Cox (clarinet, vocals); Alex 'Honey' Boulton (guitar, vocals); Alex Gilson (double bass)

A Saturday night out in Soho. The Dog and Duck for a pint of London Pride, the place packed to the gunnels, the dated pop music playing over the sound system at a level requiring patrons to bellow at a companion sitting/standing at 0.5 metres' distance. Out on the street it was easier/necessary to walk in the road thanks to the hordes bustling/sauntering along the pavements.

Turning onto Dean Street, our destination was up ahead, but one minute's walk. The Pizza Express was doing good business, upstairs and downstairs. Upstairs it was pizza, pizza, pizza. Downstairs it was jazz, jazz, jazz, and a pizza or two. The sold out first house had been and gone, we were here for the second sold out house featuring the Adrian Cox Trio.

Clarinet maestro Adrian Cox, now resident in Sweden, tours the world, from one continent to the next, seemingly year round. Our man had flown in to London to appear at the Soho Pizza Express and would be flying out first thing the next day. Tours to Europe and Scandinavia are in the pipeline, likewise New Zealand, and there is talk of Japan at some point. 

Kinklets, from Cox's latest recording, Makin' Runs, opened the show. And what a show! Showman, communicator par excellence, and one helluva musician, from the get-go Cox had the audience in the palm of his hand. Exuberance, presence, Cox commanded the stage. New Orleans clearly holds a place in Cox's heart and his new trio - guitarist Alex 'Honey' Boulton and bassist Alex Gilson - is the perfect vehicle to present and perform the music of the early twentieth century musical melting pot.

A swift Eccentric Rag met with a great reception, just as it must have done when the New Orleans Rhythm Kings played it a century and more ago. Makin' Runs, the title track from the new recording, unsurprisingly, made the cut. The Pearls featured (as it would some eighteen hours later on JRR, the radio version by the man himself, Jelly Roll Morton), Why? featured Cox the vocalist, and Buddy Bolden Stomp heard guitarist Boulton tearing it up.

Boulton featured once again, this time singing Sweet Substitute - our New Zealander can sing, that's for sure! Rent Party Blues, Lament for Javanette, one number after another - pacing, variety, not to mention brilliant musicianship, Cox is a past master at putting on a show. Some seventy five minutes later we were nearing the end of a magical evening. The Adrian Cox Trio went out on a stomping High Society and an encore to die for, Si Tu Vois Ma Mere. 

And what of our musicians? Boulton, smiling throughout, to these ears, didn't hit a bum note all night. Bassist Gilson hails from Paris and on this hearing is as good as they come. Cox, Boulton and Gilson were in touching distance of one another, charts nowhere to be seen, this was, and is, one tight trio! 

The Adrian Cox Trio continues to tour, home and abroad. Stay tuned for news of upcoming dates in the Bebop Spoken Here heartland. Russell