Monday's Improvided Music Company concert featured the excellent Scottish guitarist Jim Mullen with the Justin Carroll Trio and, in the process, reaffirmed one of jazz music's old verities - when you put good, compatible musicians together and they hit it off, the results are almost invariably enjoyable, regardless of the stylistic idiom involved. In this case, add to the recipe a mix of good standards and originals, and a quartet intent on really listening to each other, and the result was a reminder of the high-calibre, unpretentious, swinging music that was the reason many of us got interested in jazz in the first place.
Mullen is an exceptionally fluent, melodically beguiling player, with a lovely, expressive vocalised tone, able to produced long-lined solos and tremendous swing. The tone is undoubtedly influenced by the fact that he uses his thumb, rather than a pick; remarkably, there was no feeling that his speed of execution was impaired by this - rather, his work gained in lyric expressiveness because of it. It was also evident that this quartet was up musically from the opening Without A Song and the Latin Flamingo, with Mullen clearly delighted in the support he got from Carroll (on Hammond organ throughout), drummer Kieran Phillips and the solid Michael Coady on bass. An unaccompanied guitar intro to Embraceable You signalled a change of pace and mood, further developed by a gorgeous All Too Soon, graced by one of the best guitar solos of the night.
Throughout these and the rest of the programme - with the exception of a solo guitar medley (I Can't Get Started, Don't Blame Me, Deep In A Dream, Skylark, Danny Boy and Sweet Lorraine) - what was also striking was the distinctive, imaginative and exploratory nature of the gifted Carroll's solo work, as well as the responsive and sensitive drumming of Phillips. Time and again, on Peace, Paris Eyes, My Ship, I Fall In Love Too Easily and the rest, they were a delight; no wonder Mullen felt relaxed enough to show his pleasure by quoting, frequently and wittily, all night.
