Ironman scuppered the Tenby Jazz Lunch planned for September 11 at the Imperial Hotel but organiser Chris Osborne put the date back a week to September 18 and managed to secure the services of the Bristol-based Cool Jazz Quartet - writes Keith Clarke.

Led by saxophonist Greg Sterland, the band had guitarist Jonny Westhorp, keyboard player Dan Somers and bassist Mike Kennedy – all four great players in their own right and serving up many memorable solos, but more than the sum of their parts as a band, breathing life into a string of jazz standards from the great American songbook.

Sterland was on tenor sax, a magnificent instrument with a rich and fruity bass and a glittering upper register.

The sax he brought looked like it had seen life, a vintage instrument dating from 1951, with all the mellowness its years could provide. Westhorp played a Heritage guitar, which had a story attached, too.

When the celebrated Gibson guitar factory moved from Kalamazoo to Nashville in 1984, some of the instrument makers did not want to make the move so set up Heritage to keep production in Kalamazoo.

Along with Kennedy’s magnificently tall double-bass and the warmly rounded tone of Somers’ Kawai keyboard, the sound was perfect for a programme that had us glad we had ‘Time on our hands’ to enjoy ‘The sunny side of the street’ before we all took ‘The A train’.

There is more jazz today (Friday) when Wales’ hottest gypsy jazz and swing band Hot Club Gallois plays the Harbwr Brewery Taproom as part of Tenby Arts Festival.

The next jazz lunch is on October 9 when New Moonlight Boulevard brings the best of swing and Dixieland to the Imperial, where the usual superb two-course lunch and well-stocked bar will help pass an autumn afternoon in good company.

More details at TenbyJazz.co.uk