Or is it the malign spirit of a girl this septet cyber-bullied into suicide exactly one year ago this very night?
This was an opportunity for the septet to perform their party pieces without much interrogatory pressure.
Though he has in the past been criticised for his outspoken insistence on the formal values of jazz and for the power he wields as head of jazz at New York's prestigious Lincoln Centre a new 8-CD set (Sony Jazz 4976472) shows the talented Mr Marsalis doing what he loves most: playing jazz with his septet before a loud and enthusiastic audience, in this case at New York's Village Vanguard.
(After the septet took the stage Mr Matsuev regaled them, and an enchanted audience, with a bravura performance of Edvard Grieg's "The Hall of the Mountain King", particularly apposite given the cavernous nature of the underground experiments where the Higgs was spotted).
He expanded upon this interplay in the 1990s with his group Very Very Circus, a septet with unusual instrumentation, which included two tubas and two electric guitars.
Jāmī wrote an excellent imitation of Neẓāmī's Khamseh, enlarging it by the addition of two mystical mas̄navīs into a septet called Haft owrang ("The Seven Thrones," or "The Constellation of the Great Bear").
The enormous suite And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell on Petaluma (1963 64, revised 1966) comprises 23 one-minute duets and trios among 20 instruments, followed (by means of electronic dubbing) by 10 quartets and quintets and a final septet.
Pianist Marcus Roberts was a featured player in a later combo that eventually grew to be a septet (and proved to be the best vehicle for Wynton's playing and composing).
He toured the Caribbean and the Americas with his septet and, beginning in 1989, performed annually in England.
DeFranco played in Count Basie's septet in 1950 before returning to modern jazz and leading a notable quartet in the 1950s with pianists Kenny Drew and then Sonny Clark.
The varied line-up will feature disco artist Roisin Murphy, French electro-swing septet Caravan Palace and English reggae group Will and the People.
