It was the kind of sultry, groove-drenched New Orleans masterclass you always hope the fabled voodoo master Dr John will deliver, but which, sadly, he seldom does nowadays. And, irony of ironies, it was an English expat from deepest Kent whooping it up at the keyboard. The long-overdue Frith Street debut by Jon Cleary, the US-based singer-pianist and Professor Longhair devotee, more than lived up to expectations.
He has quietly been building a reputation among fellow musicians in the States, so it was gratifying to see a full house here. After this intoxicating display, a return visit is surely a certainty.
His new studio disc, Go Go Juice, makes an undeniably crisp R&B package, but on stage his Crescent City group, the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, took things to a higher level altogether, the blues and funk riffs interlocking with superhuman delicacy.
At the heart of the line-up was Jamison Ross, a young but assured drummer whose Concord debut — which has the melodic leanings of a smooth jazz album with next to none of the syrup — suggests he could soon give Gregory Porter serious competition. In Soho, he was in generous and impeccable form, never crowding his fellow musicians while generating potent surges of energy.
Cleary himself, who has a confident blue-eyed soul voice, switched between electric and acoustic keyboard on songs that often slipped into a sanctified gospel beat. His version of Junker’s Blues gave him the opportunity to stretch out at the piano and demonstrate his mastery of the New Orleans tradition.
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Bassist Cornell Williams supplied the endlessly flexible foundations to the vamps, while Derwin “Big D” Perkins, a Falstaffian figure perched on a chair, produced guitar phrases that had the nimbleness and grace of a capering nymph.