Not taking yourself too seriously is something the band abbreviated as MOPDtK take rather seriously. MOPDtK is made up of a pool of high-calibre virtuoso musicians that would nonetheless rather revive the mischievously subversive, entertainment-first approach of jazz than the serious-minded, carefully reverential ‘art’ music we often hear today. Led by the bassist-composer Moppa Elliott, the ensemble has pared down to a piano trio for their tenth CD Paint, issued on their own Hot Cup label following an enjoyable septet album Loafer’s Hollow released earlier in the year. Throughout Elliot’s compositions (aside from one cover of Ellington’s ‘Sunny Side of the Street’-like ‘Blue Goose’) the band, as on much of Loafer’s Hollow, reference pre-1940s styles such as honky-tonk, music hall, silent film music, swing-era shuffle and stride, through to later bebop and ‘spiritual’ jazz elements. Free jazz has a different role and that’s to disrupt the flow. This highly combustible trio do it with a punkfuelled exuberance. Aside from the bassist Elliot that is, who for the main part plays the part of reliable anchor. Well someone has to. The drummer Kevin Shea needs little encouragement. He’s like a dog on heat, frantically chasing the tail of everything that the electrifying pianist Ron Stabinsky (a more recent band member) can throw at him.