Jo Caleb's trio is a group of twentysomethings whose favourite jazz era ended at least four decades before they were born. But though these newcomers would raise few eyebrows for their admiration for the classic jazz of the 1950s and 1960s, they fuel an intensifying light in the work of Caleb himself. This studious-looking and reticent young guitarist, who has devoured the methods and transcriptions of Charlie Parker, Coltrane and Django Reinhardt as well as later guitar heroes like John McLaughlin, is clearly about to snap at the heels of the UK jazz-guitar generation before him, which includes Mike Walker, Phil Robson and Mike Outram.
If Caleb and his group looked as if they were playing a college audition rather than a jazz pub, they were tough and professional enough to be unfazed by the rival soundtrack from the neighbouring bar; they even braved some ballads against it. The leader established his speed of thought and freshness of phrasing on a post-bop standard, Miles Davis's Solar, and hinted at a technical breadth and tonal sensitivity that grew in assurance as the show developed.
Double-bassist Tom Mason was a shade fluffy and indistinct in attack but sustained an animated rhythmic murmur beneath the music. And drummer Alex Gould was secure on the ubiquitous bop-cymbal tick-a-tick, although a little more arrhythmic nudging of accent from him might have stung the others to creative effect.
Caleb played the ballad You Don't Know What Love Is with an echo of the thoughtful veteran Jim Hall in his sound, colouring the theme with tone changes and developing the piece into a loose and fervent double-time improvisation in his second solo. A piece of vintage uptempo bebop then found Caleb linking sharply contrasting runs with glittering, harp-like arpeggios whipped across the passing chords.
No groove-based jazz guitarist's set is ever complete without a mid-tempo blues. Caleb used his to confirm how precociously sophisticated he is at building an improvisation from successive choruses that sound happy cohabiting, but retain separate identities that are effervescently distinct.
