The veritable reincarnation of Tubby Hayes, a Rolls-Royce tenor saxophonist of that extraordinary calibre born to play, needless to say the Vortex audience reassuringly knew how and where to clap in the right places and yet this was a straightahead invasion of the east London venue given how little of the idiom is played in the club, the dyke is breached. Finely moustachioed Alex Garnett himself the son of a swinging saxophonist and hewn into the bricks and mortar at Cooke-era Ronnie Scott's as an omniscient senior certainly called 'Always' to begin. That's deep. Irving Kaufman, Josephine Baker, 1926 deep. A song picked up by Benny Goodman a decade later and subsequently run with by Dave Brubeck, Tony Bennett and Billie Holiday in the 50s you gotta go back to understand the appeal and above all the genius of Irving Berlin who wrote the song, still peerless in the tower of song. My favourite version of 'Always' is Houston Person's with Ron Carter and Garnett's flickered luminously among the many extant versions. Garnett was here with relative newcomer pianist Chris Eldred who has fast hands and can stretch; double bassist Conor Chaplin heard last month down here on the corner of Dalston's Bailey Place and Gillett Square with Tom Ollendorff; and, completing the line-up, Matt Home, a very disciplined and technically accomplished drummer, who knows his Kenny Clarke. A jaw-dropping masterclass in timing above all, Garnett playing chorus after chorus to rotate like the windmills of your mind, Monk was one theme, 'Work' simmering most. Garnett's own 'Lydia' was only let down by the sound mix. 'Reflections' another Monk was a high point getting later on into the set. Oscar Moore piece 'Beautiful Moons Ago' won the day. SG

Alex Garnett's London Supersax Project is at Ronnie Scott's on 30 July