The most exciting jazz gigs are the ones where neither audience nor performer can quite predict what will happen next. The least interesting are those given by jaded lounge bar dwellers who know they can do it in their sleep.
The middle ground is occupied by bands such as the Lowther/Mullen Quartet, an accomplished group of stalwarts led by Glaswegian guitarist Jim Mullen and trumpet player Henry Lowther.
Along with Dave Green (bass) and Stu Butterfield (drums), they bring a sensitive emotionalism to the bop repertoire, although their performances stress reverence and professionalism over quirkiness or a sense of adventure.
Nowhere is this more evident than in their approach to the Thelonious Monk tunes In Walked Bud and Monk's Dream. Monk's arch playfulness and peculiar harmonic structures have become such an established part of the jazz landscape that you'd need to do a fair bit of humorous tinkering in order to stay true to the composer's spirit.
Instead Lowther and Mullen ironed out all the kinks and quirks, simply treating the pieces as launch-pads for some high-class soloing.
Taken on their own terms, this quartet has a crisp, airy sound redolent of a Clifford Brown band. Butterfield's graceful drumming summoned the spirit of the swing era while Lowther emerged as the most engaging soloist, sculpting and massaging the melody of Say It (Over and Over Again) and filling the choruses of Alone Together with a array of bluesy swoops and joyful burbles.
Mullen opted for a glassy tone on electric guitar, alternating stinging single notes with shimmering chords. His solos were linear, densely packed affairs, enlivened during Gerry Mulligan's Bernie's Tune by pithy quotes from A Love Supreme and Mozart's 40th Symphony.
A Latin-tinged version of Too Young to Go Steady (from Coltrane's Ballads album) brought forth a sweet trumpet melody that gambolled freely over Green's thick buttery bass chords. Lulled and caressed, the audience smiled as one. Perhaps quirkiness and a sense of adventure are overrated after all.
