MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion

PLAYING his alto and soprano saxophones with a rampant, joyous attack like a contemporary Sidney Bechet, from the very first notes Trevor Watts defies his advancing age.
The 80-year-old, a veteran of revolutionary bands like Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Amalgam from the 1960s and 1970s, rises to a seething ascent as he kicks backwards on reaching each sonic summit.
Veryan Weston’s chiming, intricate piano and the artistry of John Edwards’s bass and the mallets of the subtle, ever-inventive drummer Mark Sanders beat out a thunderous salute to Watts’s eight decades.

CHRIS SEARLE wallows in an evening of high class improvised jazz, and recommends upcoming highlights in May


