Scandanavian musicians love touring southern Europe. “Everything outside Norway is cheaper and warmer,” explained trombonist Helge Sunde, whose roving band arrived here last night.

This is one of the most versatile, high-spirited and original 16‑piece bands heard in London for years. As they strode to the bandstand, playing spiky counterpoint, an evening of free-form New Orleans beckoned. Moments later their four saxes, three trumpets and three trombones punched out meaty ensembles with the precision of a top Las Vegas showband.

Equally remarkable was that their two star players were both women, Russian pianist Olga Konkova and Danish percussionist Marilyn Mazur. Konkova has fine albums to her name and Mazur toured with Miles Davis but both were content to be gleaming cogs in a luxurious machine.

Highlights included a resonant duet by bassist Per Mathisen and bass-saxman Steffen Schorn, Jens Thoresen’s guitar solo on a beautiful Norwegian folk song, Mazur’s joyfully ringing her bells and gongs on Small Landscape, and Finding Nymo, a feature for two sax-playing brothers of that name. They are in Vienna tonight, but somebody should bring them back to Ronnie Scott’s for a week, or hustle them into November’s London Jazz Festival at the expense of some untalented, depressing group doubtless lying in wait.