If the four costume changes made by Macy Gray gave this gig a pop sensibility, which is largely absent in the jazz world, then it was not accompanied by any shedding of musical ambition. An 11-piece Anglo-American horn section featuring heavyweights Rasul Siddik, Byron Wallen, Tony Kofi, Chris Biscoe and Brian Edwards wound its way through scores that were anything but denuded and the input of leader-conductor Murray’s tenor saxophone, deployed with customary creative energy, ensured that there was plenty for those with a discerning ear. And yet the title of the concert, Stompin’ And Singin’ The Blues, was by no means insignificant. The whole premise of this meeting between Gray, whose wafer-like but boldly expressive voice has made her a singular presence in the soul world in the last decade, and Murray, one of the great soloists to have emerged in jazz in the last 40 years, was a celebration of the deepest roots of African-American culture. In other words, this was real blues because the earth wire in the electricity of the music was gospel. It became explicit by way of recognised ciphers – Marc Cary’s bubbling syncopation on the Hammond organ; Gray’s double time ‘soul clappin’’ that turned a participative front row into a rockin’ pew in a house of praise; the upper register holler of the horns that squared the circle between Albert Ayler and Vernard Johnson.

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