ERSKINE & KAVUMA ULTRASOUND QUINTET AT HIDDEN ROOMS

Is this the perfect jazz ensemble in Britain today? Might just be. Things might be sliding downhill – but our country’s jazz scene is not one of them. In the past fourteen dismal years where everything has gone to pot – jazz has flourished. It was only a matter of time. The black Jamaican/Caribbean vibe has merged with the traditional white music for a fabulous fusion to rival the American scene. Ultrasound Quintet is doing just that.

The Band of Brothers swung together. Their collective musical energy filled the gorgeously gloomy underground caves of Hidden Rooms- the hot new home of Cambridge Modern Jazz. Right from the first harmonic blast these five were fabulous.

The sound is great. The mysteriously named Erskine and Kavuma are masters of saxophone and trumpet. Confident, assured, accomplished. The opening bars of the night created a sense of enjoyable tension. This is modern music with a twist It could be a scaled down Forties big band or soulful sixties Blue Note cool.

The rhythm section was amazing. Did the drummer Shane Forbes stop smiling? He had a lot to grin about, his beats were sensational. As for the piano- Deschanel Gordon was virtuosic. Some murmured Thelonious Monk but there were no angular spikey cords, simply ( and not so simply) a gorgeous Oscar Petersen style -tuneful attention to what was going on. On double bass was Michael Shrimpling ‘ he holds us all together ‘ acknowledged Kavuma in a round up of intro. Michael does that and provides some heavenly compositions. His bassist style is lyrical . The whole band sounds fierce and fast – but also lsad and sullen sometimes. Especially Michael Shrimpling’s compositions.

The pace was astonishing. The spirit of Monk did explode into both sets : we had been thinking the first set exhausted this youthful line up but no. Express train delivery gave us a Sonny Rollins favourite at twice the speed, exhilarating stuff.

“ Do you know’ my companion announced at the end ‘ I feel sorry for music lovers who don’t love jazz. They miss so much”.