It's been a while since these Crusaders first fought the good fight, and only one of the original members remains.

Pianist Joe Sample and singer Randy Crawford recently left to set up a splinter group but Wayne Henderson made sure nobody felt short-changed last night.

Sporting a leopard-print Nehru hat and matching apron — “I’m here to do some cookin’ for ya” —he strutted his stuff like the veteran showman he is.
With his trombone bell raked at 45 degrees north, as Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet used to be, Henderson’s solos were melodic and at one point he activated an effects box that turned him into two trombones, harmonising a minor-third apart. Behind him, a talented young band aimed somewhere between Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters and James Brown’s Famous Flames.

Numbers began with some deep groove-building by drummer Moyes Lucas, keyboarder Joel Gaines and six-string electric-bass ace David Hughes.
Eleanor Rigby (“We toured with The Beatles,” explained Wayne. “They loved our stuff and we loved theirs”), Scratch, Stompin’ Bug Dance and other originals then featured Henderson with Paul Russo, a crowd-pleasing tenorist whose solos came to the boil in a torrent of orgasmic shrieks, and Brian Price, an elegant guitarist who showed glimpses of speed but preferred to release his notes with a Santana-like deliberation.

Their singalong number, Keep That Same Old Feeling, worked less well than Wayne’s unexpected rap, something entitled Just Because It’s Called Jazz Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Dance.
Until tomorrow (020 7439 0747).