Brass jaw, jazz bar, edinburgh

On more than one occasion during horn quartet Brass Jaw’s return to the capital I thought they were going to break into song.

It could have happened in their sizzling arrangement of the Beatles’ Drive My Car, where their trumpet and three saxophones got as near as doesn’t matter to expressing the song’s lyrics anyway.

Or they could have followed one of those dizzyingly tight, spiralling ensemble set plays they specialise in, and where they sound like the Brecker Brothers in their pomp, by chanting “East River da di dah”.

Another time they might, because the self-proclaimed brass boy band are gallus enough to give it a go.

Not that they need to expand their avenues of expression by singing; with four strong musical personalities contributing to the repertoire, there’s plenty of variety in their composing and arranging to make sure that a couple of hours in their company passes with uncommon haste.

Time still may not pass fast enough for Allon Beauvoisin, who puts in a heroic shift on baritone saxophone, anchoring the sound and driving the group with energetic bottom line parps.

He also contributes to the aforementioned variety through the concise, funky Deal With It and the organised mayhem that is The Rochester Rumble.

Like all his colleagues, Beauvoisin is also a superbly accomplished improviser and it’s this ability to create in the moment, be it trumpeter Ryan Quigley stripping paint on the opening Sidartha, altoist Paul Towndrow producing consistently engrossing, quicksilver, left of centre ideas or Konrad Wiszniewski’s bluesy tenor adventures, that gives Brass Jaw an exciting edge as well as a mad sense of fun and grooving pan-jazz credentials.