IT seemed too long since I'd seen and listened to the kind of band

young saxophonist Russell Cowieson has assembled. When the first wave of

young jazz talent emerged in Scotland in the eighties, the London

fashion for sharp suits and straight bop was adopted lock, stock, and

barrel.

Since then the chaps involved in the John Rae Collective have all gone

in their own directions, albeit still appearing in one another's bands.

Cowieson, from the next generation, has not exactly gone back to basics

but his quintet is smartly turned out (bassist Gary Fimister even kept

his jacket on for the whole gig) and draws its repertoire from that

golden era.

Their reading of Rogers and Hart's There's a Small Hotel was pure

Miles Davis first quintet -- Cowieson and trumpeter Colin Steele are a

very tight front line. There were few originals in the set, but their

book is carefully chosen avoiding the over familiar. Here were Ralph

Moore's Freeway, Freddie Hubbard's Dear John and Bobby Watson's Jazz

Messengers tune In Case You Missed It -- all well worth the time of

night.

Importantly there was none of the po-facedness which attended much bop

revivalism. This was fun, solos liberally peppered with quotes from

other tunes -- including a very slick exchange of fours with drummer

Paddy Flaherty on Hank Mobley's This I Dig of You.

It's important that we can still hear this stuff live, because it is

some of the best jazz music ever -- and I don't know where you'd have to

go to hear it better played.