Jones may not be a name to set pulses racing, but there is one Jones family that has sped up pulses for many decades: the jazz family that includes drummer Elvin Jones, pianist Hank and trumpeter/arranger Thad. The late Thad Jones's influence is stamped all over the very classy Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, and even under the leadership of American Jim McNeely, the complex thrills of a Thad Jones ensemble sound still vibrate from the group. The DRJO visited London this week; there wasn't much of a fanfare in terms of audience numbers, but it generated plenty of clamour of its own.
When this prestigious ensemble was formed in 1964, it concentrated on new material. Now the original big bands are no longer with us and the group has taken on some of the trappings of the many golden-era legacy orchestras now in existence. But the DRJO has a strong tradition of mingling big-band history with new work. At Ronnie Scott's it balanced those priorities pretty well.
The band flagged the Thad Jones connection from the start, with a fast Jones theme emphasising the style's mix of Count Basie-like incendiary chords and Dizzy Gillespie-like fast, agile melody lines. The opener sounded somewhat like a Miles Davis Birth of the Cool piece played hot, and featured the first of a series of superbly poised trumpet solos from Henrik Bolberg Pedersen. McNeely then added sophisticated and subtly layered complexities of his own. A McNeely original about domestic dispute appropriately ran simultaneous, chattery melody lines in different directions, building up to explosive chords, with Anders "Chico" Lindvall's electric guitar whirling through it. It was technically formidable, even if its formal audacities occasionally paraded a little too proudly.
But a Gil Fuller arrangement of the Dizzy Gillespie classic Things to Come soon blew any self-consciousness away, with scorching brass parts threatening the paintwork. There was hell-driving bass-walking from the excellent Thomas Ovesen and some crisp and telling tenor sax from Hans Ulrik.
