Supported by the Button band, Can of Worms play the Oxford tonight. 

George Crowley and the Loop Collective’s Tom Challenger in the tenor-sax frontline, the lively rhythm section of Strobes pianist Dan Nicholls, bassist Sam Lasserson and drummer Jon Scott harness the nudging of metrically-elaborate post-bop to imaginative effect.

Inhabiting a no-man’s land embedded somewhere edgy deep behind maths-jazz lines there’s a clear sense of adventurous interplay explored within the group, the two tenors jostling and cajoling, bouncing ideas, taking risks, all egged on by the all-hearing Nicholls. 

Crowley does not entirely eschew freewheeling swing – his sound when you can pick it out maybe closest to Stan Sulzmann’s – the band capable of generating plenty of heat and clear-headed enough to make logical switches in tempo and mood to take the Crowley tunes ‘out’ given half the chance. SG

Info & ticketing details are at the Oxford website