There's no clearer sign that this club is back on track than finding Pharoah Sanders on its bandstand.

The straight-backed, whitebearded tenorist from Little Rock, Arkansas, ticks all the vital boxes. Worked with John Coltrane? True. A direct link to the greats of the past? Definitely.

But even more relevantly, he remains totally committed to his music and plays each gig as if it were his last on earth.

Farrell Sanders (he changed it to Pharoah after a phone misunderstanding led to a poster error that appealed to him) is a man of few words. Last night, he retreated backstage between solos and didn't introduce his group until the end of his 90-minute set, yet so eloquent was his playing that nobody took umbrage. For once he was properly miked, and the force of his sound soon became almost hypnotic.

A fast modal opener, similar to Coltrane's classic, Impressions, found him improvising in dense clusters, riding the beat with a forest of notes punctuated by hoarse, impassioned shrieks and multiphonic overtones so powerful that my table vibrated in sympathy.

My Favourite Things came next, with Sanders and pianist William Henderson staying with the introductory vamp in their solos, followed by a boppish blues that changed key each chorus. This was complex music, unadulterated and uncompromising, yet everyone remained fascinated. And that was before his trick coda, where he gradually stops blowing and the saxophone appears to be playing itself.

Each number lasted half an hour, with extended solos not only by Sanders and Henderson, but also bassist Nat Reeves and drummer Joe Farnsworth, which asked a lot of an audience's patience. Reeves is a fine section player but not at his best as a soloist. The same could be said of Farnsworth, a hardworking timekeeper. One solo per set from him would be fine, but it says everything about the group's ethos that they pulled off this exercise in democracy.

A well-judged closer, The Creator Has a Master Plan, complete with brief Sanders vocal, brought matters to a peaceful conclusion and a warm ovation that this charismatic and transparently genuine performance deserved.

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