On the second of three nights at the Jazz Café, the James Taylor Quartet devoted the main part of their performance to songs from their new album, Don’t Mess With Mr T, a typically suave collection of numbers made famous by artists on the Motown label.

For this, the Quartet quickly expanded, eventually becoming a dectet, as horn players, a percussionist and various guest vocalists arrived on the narrow stage to add their contributions to standards such as Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours) and Barrett Strong’s Money (That’s What I Want).

Taylor, as ever, remained the ringmaster behind his Hammond organ, the classic instrument that has defined the retro sound of the group since they arrived at the birth of the acid-jazz scene in the mid-1980s with their stylish reworkings of film and TV theme tunes such as Mission: Impossible and Starsky and Hutch.

The Motown spirit was moulded into a similarly fresh and funky shape, especially on a stellar performance of the Supremes’ hit Come See About Me, featuring the honeyed voice of Donna Gardier. However, Omar’s appearance, performing Marvin Gaye’s After the Dance and his own signature song There’s Nothing Like This, was not the jewel in the crown it was made out to be. He seemed to have difficulty locating the keys of both songs, and chose to occupy the one spot on the stage that was, inexplicably, cast in total darkness.

Earlier, instead of booking another band to open the show, the JTQ had opted to play the first set of the night themselves. “Now that we’ve become our own support act, we don’t want to blow ourselves away,” Taylor joked. But that is exactly what they did. With their regular “guest” vocalist Yvonne Yanney at the helm, the four musicians at the core of the group hammered through some ultra-funk gems including There’s a Break in Every Road, and ended with Jan Jan, an instrumental tour de force that took off like a rocket. For all the smooth excellence of the Motown section after which followedthe interval, it was nothing compared with the raw, joyously propulsive surge of excitement generated by this much more hardcore opening set.

Tour continues Thur 13 Dec at Picturedrome, Northampton; Fri 14 Dec, Mick Jagger Centre, Dartford; Fri 21 Dec, the Thomas Tripp, Christchurch

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