Modern Standards Supergroup at The Forge, Camden

I found myself first in the queue for this gig at seven o’clock sharp when the doors opened, meaning a near two-hour wait until the music started…. but it was entirely worth it. The word supergroup is often tossed around with abandon, but in the case of the Modern Standards Supergroup, it is thoroughly deserved.

Two of the four are by virtue of their age and breadth of career the epitome of ‘super’ – drummer Harvey Mason, one of the most recorded drummers in the world and sticksman in the original Herbie Hancock Headhunters, and sax player Ernie Watts, who’s worked with the Rolling Stones and Charlie Haden among many others. Both were introduced as two of the most recorded jazz artists of the modern era.

Beside them were two relative striplings: Niels Lan Doky, brother of jazz bassist Chris, on keyboards, and Felix Pastorius, son of … well, you know who. On stage together, this quartet produced some of the best live jazz I’ve heard in a good while, and the crowd at the remodelled Forge certainly agreed, given the reception at the end.

The angle for the Modern Standards Supergroup is to play jazz interpretations of modern rock and pop classics – a not altogether original idea (the Bad Plus were doing it twenty years ago), but one delivered excellently. A few originals by the players, such as the first number “Sex Pots” by Doky which opened the show, were mixed in for good measure.

Niels Lan Doky was my primary reason for attending; I’d seen his brother Chris live many times, and was curious if the latter’s world-class jazz chops ran in the family. Answer: they do. Undoubtedly the band leader – he has already toured a different version of this project – Doky’s creative choices on tracks like Oasis’ “Wonderwall: were entirely convincing and his playing was just impeccable throughout.

Indeed, all four of them were immense. Given their collective musical heritage, it would have been surprising if they were not.  I was especially intrigued to hear Felix Pastorius. Sadly I’m too young to have had the chance to see his father live, but close your eyes..imagine you are listening to Pastorius senior…it’s all too easy. On his six-string electric bass – with a single rose affixed to the headstock, his tremendously fast finger-work, stopped chords, frequent use of harmonics, and luscious melodies overlaying a solid groove at all times… it was totally spellbinding. Felix towers over the other players in physical stature and mostly plays sitting down.

Ernie Watts was someone I’d never actively listened to before (more fool me). Once the instrument was in contact in his mouth, you understood why the audience hollered and cheered every note: such stamina! Indeed, he seemed to throttle his tenor sax on the Prince track “It’s About that Walk”, just to get every last squeak out of the fantastically fast trills he enjoyed. And those sustained notes: oh, wow.

Harvey Mason was throughout the evening unobtrusive and entirely undemonstrative, but his beat was true and on every track – including when they played Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon”, a track he co-wrote, he served the music spectacularly well. Their version was recognisably Hancock’s, but the groups swapped some minor for major chords to give it an ‘odd’ feeling, but one that showed the strength of the original composition.

At times with a couple of the covers you could see the join where the band went from the fireworks of their improvisation back to the simpler pop melody, but they clearly had tremendous fun with the concept and alongside original compositions like Ernie Watts’ “Reaching Up”, it all hung together very well. The encore – Jaco Pastorius’ “Teen Town” – was superb.

A fabulously uplifting evening, spoiled only by the absolute scourge of modern gig-going: people spending tens of minutes at a time watching one of the best gigs of the year through a five inch phone screen. 

Where ARE the jazz police when you need them?