The Eastside Jazz Club, Leytonstone, London E11 

HERE’s an unlikely venue for some hot jazz: the Leytonstone Ex-Serviceman’s Club, East London. 

Up the stairs and it’s a large, comfortable chamber with a lively bar and excellent acoustics. And who were playing tonight? A quartet of Caribbean-rooted luminaries with powerful, liberating sounds, led by saxophonist Vaughan Hawthorne-Nelson, with Stepney-born drummer Mark Mondesir, master pianist Robert Mitchell from just up the Central Line in Gants Hill, and veteran bassist Larry Bartley.

Hawthorne-Nelson’s prowess on alto and soprano saxophones is outstanding. As he opened with his alto’s fleeting, lightning runs on his own tune, Cereal Killer, with Mitchell swinging his keys like a sonic athlete, Bartley walking his bass expertly and Mondesir chomping on his drums, it was soon clear that this was to be a luminous night of music.