The four jazz tenors

'As you see, it's taking five of us to give some idea of what Tubby could do,' said Spillett, an authority on his work. Since Tubby loved to play fast, this was also a testing night for the rhythm section. Arnie Somogyi's walking bass achieved heroic speeds while drummer Chris Dagley kept everything taut and pianist Tom Cawley maintained more momentum than usual.

The front line did much huffing and puffing without really evoking the great man's harmonic accuracy and seamless fluency, but Sydor and Spillett were more lucid than Barnes and Long, whose work involved frantic speed-licks assembled in random order. Long, sharing the announcements with Spillett, opened in typically jovial mood but became genuinely rattled at finding Tubby's eldest son Richard in the audience.

Towards the end of the set, Spillett played Souriya and for the first time Tubby's tenor sound seem to fill the room. Those few hair-raising moments made the evening worthwhile.

The Four Tenors