On the first weekend of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, the Hub played host to most types of jazz in general, and two extremes of jazz piano in particular.

Star rating: ****

On the first weekend of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, the Hub played host to most types of jazz in general, and two extremes of jazz piano in particular. While the early period of the music was well represented by Morton Gunnar Larsen in several concerts, it was pretty much left to the veteran British piano star Stan Tracey to balance out the proceedings with his homage to pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, as featured on his 2006 CD with Bobby Wellins.

The Glasgow-born tenor saxophonist was also there on Sunday evening to reprise his CD role and, despite the fact he and Tracey have a combined age that exceeds 150, they stormed through a 90-minute - straight, no interval - concert that was exhausting just to listen to. There was no sign of anyone pacing himself; these guys went straight in at the deep end with a hard-swinging performance of Bright Mississippi, Monk's distinctive reworking of Sweet Georgia Brown, which was amplified to such an extent that it must have raised the rafters of houses halfway down the Royal Mile.

Tracey, whose own style has been significantly influenced by Monk's playful and percussive approach, as well as his unsettling harmonics, was at his most dynamic on Well You Needn't, while Wellins's forthright yet romantic tenor helped make Blue Bolivar Blues a treat. Andrew Cleyndert on bass and Clark Tracey on drums lent top-notch support, Cleyndert's elegant solo on I Mean You being particularly noteworthy.