Composer-arranger-conductor and let us not forget trumpeter Guy Barker and myself have collaborated on several large scale jazz projects over the years. There was The Amadeus Project featuring dZf, a cheeky Runyonesque re-working of The Magic Flute, featuring actor Michael Brandon as the gravel-voiced narrator. For a Benjamin Britten festival at Aldeburgh we created That Obscure Hurt, a 90-minute piece for 75 musicians, with the great American singer Kurt Elling and actress Janie Dee. As a co-commission with the RTE (he is its Associate Artist) and the BBC Concert Orchestras, Guy created bravura new arrangements of Charles Mingus’s music to a text written by me and spoken/sung by Allan Harris.

But Inferno 67 is something else, as you can tell from this ad in the latest edition of Jazzwise:

My instruction from Guy was to imagine an episode of the Twilight Zone as if directed by David Lynch and scored by Quincy Jones, Miklos Rosza, Bernard Herrmann and Johnny Dankworth. And maybe the Beatles. And definitely Coltrane. That was before the pandemic. Since that enforced hiatus, it has grown in scope, introducing new characters, references and twists and is now blessed with one hell of a score. Luckily the powerhouse Guy Barker Big Band, its ranks filled with world-class soloists, can manage every switchback that its titular leader can throw at them.

So that just left the story element to deal with. For the narrator, Guy recruited the wonderful Clarke Peters (The Wire, Five Guys Named Moe, etc etc) and for lyrics, wit and devilish charm, the urbane Joe Stilgoe. The firebrand soul and funk come from the incomparable Vanessa Haynes; the shape-shifting love story is delivered by two of the UK’s top actors – Demetri Goritsas (whom I had seen in the fabulous “Jaws” play The Shark is Broken, as Roy Scheider) and Emer Kenny, who, among many other things, wrote the screenplay and co-starred in the series Karen Pirie, based on the novels by Val McDermid.

So, in all, that’s about 22 people on stage. It’s fair to say Ronnie Scott’s has rarely seen anything like it, but rest assured, the beating heart of this piece is the finest big band jazz in all it iterations. And a bottle of Green Spot whiskey. Oh, and a shrunken head. You’ll just have to go to find out why.

INFERNO 67 is at Ronnie Scott’s on Frith St in Soho from September 17th to 9th, two shows each night. Details: https://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/find-a-show/guy-barker