Saxophonist and composer Julian Argelles is one of those talented artists whose career was given a well-deserved boost by being part of the seminal British big band Loose Tubes. The history of his recordings shows a musician who has moved with conviction from the wild organisation of Loose Tubes to more hard groove with smaller groups through to his latest CD As Above So Below in which he gives full rein to the lyrical side of his playing with a full string section.

It was very much in this mood that he came to the Spin. His playing on tenor was full of rounded corners and complex, though beautifully turned, phrases. The wonderfully extended and perfectly constructed movements in his solos gave one the feeling of flying low over lush landscape. There was a mysterious mixture of fast, tight playing with a melodic structure and use of the tenor's range that gave a feeling of almost pastoral lyricism with an edge of excitement as he took us low over the tree tops. This was emphasised by Argelles's very precise use of dynamics, so a phrase would drop suddenly to a whisper and then swell out. Such a wide dynamic range is often the last aspect of music to make its way into a lot of the jazz idiom.

This individual style of playing does not make him an easy soloist to back and there were times in the evening when there was a certain unease among the band. On the other hand, when things came together, as in the very beautiful Oxley original Song for Stino or a familiar standard like Stella by Starlight, the house band did just what it was there for providing a firm and imaginative base over which Argelles could float and curve.

Interestingly, it was in the Argelles originals that things often sounded most insecure, as the writing here is dense and complex the sort of music that can only work with some degree of familiarity. That said, the house band did a fine job as always with, in this case, some very solid solo work from Oly Hayhurst on bass.