The crowd in the Belfast Boat Club on Saturday night was treated to two contrasting jazz styles by two very contrasting musicians. Here we had extrovert trad side-by-side with introvert mainstream or modern jazz. It worked up to a point. The odd couple were Spike Robinson, hunched over his tenor sax like a parody of the weather-beaten, well-worn jazz musician, teaming up with clarinettist Kenny Davern, dapper and sharp, as upright as a sergeant major on parade.
The pair, backed by the fine rhythm section of Colin Wood on piano, John Wadham on drums and Dave Fleming on double bass, were stylistically planets apart: Robinson with his typical depth and introspection in modern mode, and Davern, blowing with punch and vigour, keeping it traditional.
It was a set mainly of old standards - Undecided, In a Mellotone, Mood Indigo - but what more or less saved the night was that each played with absolute conviction. There was no point finding middle ground, so what we had was Robinson and Davern soloing in their polar-opposite styles. They worked together best on Out of Nowhere: Robinson's soulfulness marrying well with Davern's crisp delivery.
