An auspicious start to the New Year? Possibly. The Vortex’s 25th anniversary? Yes, as a capacity audience queued on Monday to see–what was billed as The Exiles–an ensemble of mainly ex-pat’s: two New Yorker’s Scott Stroman (vocals), Jean Toussaint (tenor/soprano sax), returnee from pop stadiums around the globe Jason Rebello (piano), recently exiled to New York Emily Wolf (vocals) and two stay at homers Alec Dankworth (bass) and Paul Clarvis (drums).

With a stated mission to play both standards and originals with great soloing and lots of energy Stroman takes up the vocal duties with You’re Everything, an up-tempo song with a samba feel he scats around the melody with the occasional embellishment from Toussaint but it is Rebello’s soloing that really ignites the excitement.

When Emily Wolf (Stroman’s daughter) joins the set there are moments of vocal sparring as they negotiate the latticework arrangements of It’s Your Song and Lose Your Blues.

Even without a microphone or touch of reverb for the soprano sax Toussaint and Rebello–featuring in the Kenny Kirkland composition, Diende–managed to convey the beauty of the song’s melodic structure together with Dankworth’s anchoring bass and vocal harmonies an air of poignancy remains.

However, this is soon removed as the band really began to stretch-out with Swinging On A Riff–a Toussaint original showing influences from his Jazz Messengers tenure. And as foretold there was lots more energy right up to Old Devil Moon that rounded off a thoroughly enjoyable evening.Happy 25th birthday Vortex!

– Roger Thomas