Ahead of the final night of the Brit-jazz Festival at Ronnie Scott’s Courtney Pine earlier today finished a high octane second house set with his Transition In Tradition band. On bass clarinet, soprano saxophone and flute it was Pine’s tribute to early saxophone pioneer Sidney Bechet through a Caribbean and Afrio-Cuban filter. Violinist Omar Puente joined in the second house line-up for a formidable three-pronged attack alongside pianist Alex Wilson and guitarist Cameron Pierre, with Darren Taylor hugely impressive on bass and Robert Fordjour providing “multi-directional” drum support throughout. The flute feature ‘The Tale of Joe Harriott’ was a set highlight. Pine and the band throughout cranked the momentum up to its biting point with a torrent of improvisational invention which went down a treat with the audience.

As for tonight to set the scene: Just 10 months after the ECM label started at the tail end of the 1960s, bassist Arild Andersen in a recording studio in Oslo laid down a run of tracks as a member of the Jan Garbarek Quartet that would become one of the defining European jazz albums of the last 40 years. That album was Afric Pepperbird and tonight Andersen is at Ronnie Scott’s for his own “blow away zone” with Scottish titan tenorist Tommy Smith and drummer Paolo Vinaccia for the final night of the Brit-jazz Festival playing to separate houses, bringing to a close 15 nights of sold-out gigs attracting audiences of old hands and newcomers alike to sample UK jazz at its best.

Tommy Smith himself made a startling impact on Blue Note records back in the late-1980s and has since become a pivotal figure on the Scottish scene as a bandleader, composer and mentor to a new generation of jazz musicians both in small group and big band settings. The trio with Andersen and Vinaccia pulled off a major statement when they released Live At Belleville last year and are supported by man-of-the-moment Troyka pianist Kit Downes, with his trio of Calum Gourlay and James Maddren. Jazzwise is a sponsor of the Brit-jazz fest

- Stephen Graham

For more go to www.ronniescotts.co.uk