Appropriate PA music volume 812: as people took their seats to Miles Davis's Jack Johnson album, there was a feeling that this might not be the last time tonight that we heard a trumpet soloing over a cooking rhythm section.

Star rating ***
Appropriate PA music volume 812: as people took their seats to Miles Davis's Jack Johnson album, there was a feeling that this might not be the last time tonight that we heard a trumpet soloing over a cooking rhythm section. Trumpet solos aren't part of the classic Little Feat sound, but since Fred Tackett's elevation from songwriting pal to band member in the Feat's 1980s return, they've been an option.

The cooking rhythm section, on the other hand, is central and there were copious opportunities to admire one of the greatest, most distinctive heartbeats in rock music.

Singing doesn't appear to be one of the group's great strengths these days. Conga player Sam Clayton, guitarist Paul Barrere and keyboardist Bill Payne all have distinctive voices on record but Clayton's previously lascivious telling of Spanish Moon got lost here and the others' efforts weren't always clear either.

At such points, and when the soloing got a little, let's say, overgenerous - as on Day at the Dog Races' instrumental fusion - bass guitarist Kenny Gradney and the magnificent Richie Hayward on drums carried the music, and made it feel good, very good.

When it keeps things concise or lets it roll with its trademark discipline and cues, the band as a whole are still capable of magic. Oh Atlanta shot out of the traps with all the excitement and urgency of a Jailhouse Rock and the up to this point rather superfluous Shaun Murphy injected real New Orleans blues feeling into Allen Toussaint's On Your Way Down before years of experience and sheer rock'n'roll nous told in a brilliantly cranked-up finale.