"He's dizzy like a fox, you know," singer Carmen McCrae once said of Dizzy Gillespie, noting that for all his clowning, his music had remarkable depth.

The great trumpeter was also a product of brassy showbands (Charlie Barnet, Teddy Hill, Cab Calloway), which are almost extinct today, but vivid reconstructions like these are rekindling the flame. The 16 men and a girl (scat-singer extraordinaire Roberta Gamberini) who rocked this Chelsea hall on Friday evening sounded very healthy indeed.

Led by trombonist Slide Hampton and featuring another of Dizzy's original stars, saxman James Moody, they made storming work of Hot House, Dizzy's Business, Jessica's Day - by Jimmy Heath, Quincy Jones and Hampton. The band's younger soloists impressed, notably altoist Antonio Hart, drummer Dennis Mackrell and trumpeters Greg Gisbert and Claudio Roditi.

Gisbert was suitably eloquent throughout, while Hart, nothing special in his Roy Hargrove days, has blossomed into a dazzling all-rounder capable of Johnny Hodges-like lyricism in his ballad feature, Con Alma.

Dizzy's scores are still regarded as difficult. Thanks to the ace musicianship of modern professionals, the ensemble passages of Round Midnight, Manteca and Things to Come were performed with all the fire of old, plus an amazing precision previously unknown. Ghost bands aren't supposed to move that fast.