The remarkably spry 82-year-old pianist and composing legend Dave Brubeck gently pointed out, in his smoky drawl, that there are 12 new pieces on his latest album - and that he took one look at the audience and threw half of them off the set list. An ocean of silver hair suggested that this second show on Brubeck's 14-date UK tour was attended mostly by fans who could personally recall the pianist's catchy chart hits and his great quartet's triumphant tours of the late 1950s and the 1960s.
Of course, Brubeck played his most famous signature tunes - but in the end, his performance was a heartening display by an idiosyncratic octogenarian with an enduring relish for playing jazz. The tricky time signatures and elegant classical forms were less in evidence than open-handed, straightahead playing. There were jaunty stride-piano introductions from the leader, swingers and pensive ballads. Bobby Militello, a Brubeck regular, contributed some powerful alto playing that was part Charlie Parker and part soul-sax.
From the opening slow-stride introduction to Sunny Side of the Street, the relationship between Brubeck's often four-square time and the saxophonist's mercurial agility was central, with the latter a long way from the Paul Desmond imitations that such a golden-era comeback tour might have invited. They played How High the Moon as a request, with Brubeck developing it from subtle harmony-layering to a jubilant interplay with Militello's cat-like elisions of notes, high warbles and flying runs. The two played a delightful duet on Over the Rainbow, arranged for just the piano and Militello's windy, melancholy flute.
The saxophonist did touch on the late Desmond's statuesque minimalism in These Foolish Things, on which the skilful bassist Michael Moore delivered an immaculately pitched and viola-like bowed solo. But this sedate-looking, tuxedo-clad foursome's enthusiasm for a knees-up was confirmed by Brubeck's repetitive but ecstatic Crescent City Stomp (over Randy Jones's tom-tom war dance), with Militello almost straying into David Sanborn territory.
On the Brubeck classic Three to Get Ready, the saxophonist took a cooler course, letting the complex rhythm work for him - only to explode into a big, whoopy break on Unsquare Dance, which was far too unbuttoned to have found its way into the fastidious original version.
Of course, there is a sentimental satisfaction in finding Brubeck on the road with a quartet again, and this is not music that turns many unexpected corners. But Brubeck has turned a great many in his illustrious past, and still plays as if he knows why.
· At the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, on Sunday. Box office: 0141-353 8000. Then touring.
