Bridge Music's Jazz Thursdays returned to Glasgow Art Club with New York-based pianist John Colianni launching the autumn season in front of an audience whose numbers indicated a continuing appetite for jazz in a congenial, listening environment.
It was a listening environment for Colianni's Scottish accomplices, too, as the pianist works at the level he's used to in New York and doesn't make many concessions: tunes are selected on the spot and the soloing order is determined by an imperiously pointed pianistic finger.
Guitarist Kevin Mackenzie, bassist Jay Kilbride and drummer Chris Whitehouse consequently had to keep on their toes - and largely coped - as Colianni took familiar standards off on energised, virtuosic explorations of jazz piano styles and musical geography that were seldom predictable.
From a cascading piano introduction, Autumn Leaves danced through Argentinian and Brazilian rhythms, finally alighting in Cuba, and Cherokee developed into a piano-guitar fugue whose spontaneous baroque construction gave way to a piano medley that sailed into As Time Goes By then a hornpipe, and, to continue the theme, Rule Britannia.
The homegrown threesome were possibly relieved when Colianni announced a solo piano examination of St Louis Blues and doubtless would have admired Colianni's adeptness in bringing out the Spanish tinge and romping stride, ragtime and boogie-woogie components.
They were soon back in harness, however, and the pacy All the Things You Are made for an invigorating finale, with Mackenzie pulling out bluesy licks in response to Colianni's typically crisp invention.
It suggested that with a little more preparation and some solid road work this could be a quartet that Colianni might convene on a more long-term basis.
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