John Scofield and Jon Cleary get stuck in the blues Pizza Express Jazz Club

Last night at Pizza Express Club in Soho was a tale of two Johns. It was the best of New Orleans-style blues, it was… well, not much else really. This was a perfectly enjoyable set, but one also slightly held back by a sense that the performance remained in the same gear throughout.

With just Scofield (guitar) and Cleary (piano and vocals) on stage, some tunes worked wonderfully, but others felt like they needed the addition of further musicians, ideally a drummer, to really draw out the excitement of the music and add more shifts in dynamics.

Cleary, a performer steeped in New Orleans blues and jazz standards, is a convincing performer of songs like ‘Let the Good Times Roll’ and ‘Tipitina’. His vocal delivery is strong, with just the right amount of roughness, though he stopped short of overdoing it in the way that singers of the genre can be prone to.

On guitar, Scofield's signature sound is present and correct, his jagged ‘outside’ licks played fast and loose. He occasionally heads over to his own mic to deliver backing vocal harmonies, pulling a face of pleasant surprise at himself as he does so.

As the night goes on, there’s a definite sense of fun in the air, and it feels almost like the audience is eavesdropping on a jam session between two old friends, who’ve set up in one of their living rooms. For a jazz gig, a little too much of the evening is spent in and around the classic 1-4-5 blues chord pattern, leading to a slight sense of relief when one of the instrumentalists is allowed to harmonically meander during an introduction to a tune or a bridge.

There’s no doubt that both musicians are masters of their craft, with both the selection of songs and their clear enjoyment of performing together creating a warm atmosphere. But as the gig ended, and in spite of the rapturous applause, a sense remained that a bit more could have been done to create a greater range of harmonic and dynamic interest.