YOU would have given odds against even St Vitus getting a modern jazz

audience up dancing in the train tunnel atmosphere of the City Halls.

You would have reckoned without the Rebirths and their stomping, joyous

exuberant evocation of the best in jazz and associated music over the

past 80-odd years.

They so invigorated a surprisingly small crowd that at one stage the

stage was invaded by a dozen or so boppers. All of which was too much

for the hall keepers -- Glasgow's version of the Redcoats put on their

best jobsworth attitudes and cleared them off.

No matter, a minor irritant like that could not spoil the party. The

Rebirths are one of dozens of new-style marching bands, taking the old

format of the original Dixieland and using it as a board to spring all

sorts of musical styles, from trad to funk via swing, bebop, big band,

and R'n'B.

Kicking off with an old New Orleans trad number, Bourbon St Parade,

the band seemed to flow effortlessly through the different facets of

jazz -- the only omnipresent factors being enthusiasm and feel. Okay,

there have been better, more accomplished outfits but for getting down

to the soul of the music this was a hard show to beat.

It touched through numbers like Ellington's Caravan, Miles Davis's All

Blues, St Thomas Infirmary, a Dizzy Gillespie tune and even Stevie

Wonder's Too High. The rock solid snare and bass drumming of Ajay

Mallory and Keat Frazier set a backbone of beat for the sousaphone bass

lines of Keat's brother Philip, who must have several spare pairs of

lips to keep up the constant flow of that essential sound.

Up front the five horns were divided between two trumpets, trombones,

and a tenor sax, and despite some wayward tuning early on soon merged to

produce some snorting, Kentonesque brass lines.

Thirteen-year-old trumpeter Derek Shezbie looks like being some player

for the future (he's good now). The other trumpet was in the hands and

lips of Kermit Ruffins, who blew some spectacular top-register solos.

Stafford Agee and Reggie Stewart on trombones were always lively and

there were some fluid breaks from Roderick Paulin on tenor.

Who says you can't party to modern jazz?