It is a cold Saturday night in Camden and a bunch of Dutchmen in sharp suits are playing danceable jazz - how can you go wrong? Over the past decade, the Amsterdam-based New Cool Collective has evolved from an acid-jazz experiment - sax and percussion with a DJ - into the hottest live act in the Netherlands. Every number is performed with the confidence of an act that plays more than 100 gigs a year. Benjamin Herman and David Rockefeller, the front men, fling out intricate brass flourishes with practised ease. The six-man rhythm section puts every beat, riff and chord in the right place, reassembling the Chinese puzzle of each funky groove with eager pride.
And the audience love it. The New Cool Collective members, conservatory-trained musicians with purist backgrounds, claim to have hit on their accessible mix of Afro-Latin soul-jazz as a pragmatic alternative to the chin-stroking factionalism of the Dutch jazz scene. They seem to have succeeded: the Jazz Cafe crowd is neither bearded nor bloke-dominated. And though a few diners prattle on during Leslie Lopez's bass feature early in the evening, the audience soon declare their undying love for the band.
Why? Well, every number, without exception, makes you want to dance. Every tune has a hook. The band's own tunes alternate with supercharged covers such as Con Que? and Machowe, a steaming slice of Afro-beat. Pieces such as Big Mondays, Chevere, Lucoolmi and Love Boat have a flared, retro allure that appeals to connoisseurs of 1960s and 70s cool. Pianist Willem Friede plays a suitcase Fender Rhodes with a few effects units: it is an instant mood-creator.
Within the restraints of their idiom, the Collective pack in plenty of jazz content, with boppish solos from Herman on alto sax and cooler stuff from Rockefeller on flugelhorn. Anton Goudsmit, a great rhythm guitarist who does all the essential wah-wah and funky-chicken stuff, comes forward now and then to play monstrous guitar solos. He is easily the most audacious improviser, and the crowd love him to bits.
