I grabbed a chance to make a first visit to the Blue Note on St Martin’s Lane last night. The club opened in September. It’s in a capacious basement, has very good sightlines, a fairly wide stage and clear sound.
This Tomorrow’s Warriors curated evening divided into two houses (I attended the first of these) opened with a short set led by saxophonist and flautist Maddy Combs. ‘Equinox’ was the first number, a strongly pentatonic riff heavy classic John Coltrane piece, and it was Trane’s influence that benevolently provided a halo effect for the set and indeed the whole evening.
Coombs has a persuasive tone and she led a piano-less trio featuring strong double bass playing from Genevieve Namazzi and the vibrant sound of drummer Zoe Pascal. Coombs was let down a tiny bit by a squeaky reed but excelled nevertheless on Trane’s ‘Central Park West’ and throughout. Later what might have been created by the use of dry ice that implied a rising smoke effect behind the players could be spotted on the well lit stage. Diffident and quiet at the microphone when speaking to the audience she far more confidently went on to introduce a tune of hers so far untitled taking out her flute and playing it and reverting back to sax on the tune after a chorus or two.
But it was the trio’s lit up inside take on Tadd Dameron’s ‘On a Misty Night’ that proved the pick of the brief set.
The main act of the first house was led by Gary Crosby, the influential bassist who down the years has helped steer Tomorrow’s Warriors into the powerhouse incubator of new talent it remains today – and what a strong band he brought with him. The quartet was enhanced by guest singer Cherise Adams-Burnett last heard by this blog during A Great Day in London at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The singer also appeared on the Downtown Abbey film soundtrack.
Bearing Betty Carter in mind especially when she negotiated tricky vocalese passages after the main lyrics were stated, Cherise on several occasions showed her strong technical command and interpretative ability. The songs selected included Gigi Gryce’s ‘Social Call,’ Cole Porter’s ‘Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye’ and ‘Night and Day’ the last of which went down best with the audience going by the noise the well filled room generated. The place is quite a big club – probably a bit larger than the size of Ronnie Scott’s: it certainly feels wider – and is more spacious.
As for the band I liked the way they did Oliver Nelson and Gail Fisher’s ‘Stolen Moments’ and Andrew McCormack – who is also bassist Kyle “son of Clint” Eastwood’s long time pianist – was superb especially when he leant into quartal harmony more and “went fourth” hammering the club’s Yamaha to effect and allying with drummer Rod Youngs, an American who has lived in England for years and who used to be in Gil Scott-Heron’s Amnesia Express.
Clad in double denim Cherise was affable during her audience chats – she told us she is doing a masters in business on the side – goes the extra mile in using facial and hand gestures to interpret the words of the songs she sings so you get a clear take on how she understands the words and brings them to life. The band take and vocal imagination shown in the treatment of ‘My Favorite Things’ – again a nod to Coltrane who famously interpreted the Rodgers and Hammerstein Sound of Music number on his 1961 album of the same name – was rousing and the best thing of all.
So an ideal introduction to the club – I hope I’m back again before too long – and a pleasure as ever to hear Gary Crosby in optimum conditions. An earlier gig he participated in, over at Cadogan Hall in the summer led by “marvellous” Marvin Muoneké and Mark Lockheart, is my gig of the year so far. Last night’s show is also up there among the best live jazz I have witnessed in 2026.
