"I can't believe my luck," jazz sage Herbie Flowers casually confessed halfway through this breezy session. "How long have we got? I've got the rest of my life."
A dab hand on bass, Flowers was enraptured by the star billing of experienced vocalist Tina May, joining the compere and his long-standing pianist and collaborator Mike Hatchard.
May - a Francophile with a voice tailored to soft standards - had arrived from across the Channel, where she initially started out as a musical apprentice, leading her own Paris Quarter years later.
Her selection of the Etta James courtship ode A Sunday Kind Of Love, purring softly of daydreams, was wisely matched to the relaxed atmosphere among an audience appreciative of a toe-tapper or two, echoing the easy ambience of another assured crowd-pleaser, Ella Fitzgerald's Summertime.
Hatchford demonstrated his knack for a cheery composition with some good-time tinkering over a succession of jaunty chords, and Cheek To Cheek, Irving Berlin's hummable number one made famous by Fred Astaire 80 years ago, was reprised in gently unspectacular fashion in the grand shadow of the vast Corn Exchange garden doors.
The reliable charm of his episodic residency here makes the good-humoured Flowers a popular visitor.
Three stars
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article