Jazz Sabbath: Jazz Sabbath Live

One can almost imagine the hypothetical 2025 tour reviews: "To hear him in person, you would never imagine Milton Keanes must be pushing age 80. He zips across the keys with abandon like a man half that age, matched by his equally spry bandmates keeping up with every gallop. The trio continually whips up a storm, defying any age and fit for any time."

Or so it would be fun to picture, if you enjoy playing along with the fictitious Jazz Sabbath background story. The "official" legend posits that the iconic early Black Sabbath catalogue was originally stolen from a short-lived 1960s underground jazz trio, which belatedly reemerged in the 2010s to present the music the way it was always meant to sound. It remains an amusing lark, but as much as ever—arguably more than ever—this quasi-tribute combo (actually not from the '60s and much younger than 80) impresses and delights all on its own terms. Longtime Sabbath/Osbourne touring keyboardist Adam Wakeman plays the Keanes role to toe-tapping perfection, and Arthur Newell and Jack Tustin do indeed sprint and stomp enough to do justice to the pieces and their brash-and-loud heritage.

Leaving aside the guitars and horns that have garnished their studio recordings, this live show simply features the trio adapting it all straight-up with no extra dressing. They waste no time getting straight to the music's earliest roots—the performance kicks off with "Black Sabbath" itself, crashing in with all the sturm und drang that made the band's debut piece so unsettling in 1970, before turning it into a smooth-stepping late-night blues. Inevitably, the live setting only spurs them to more flights in increasingly fanciful directions. "Behind the Wall of Sleep" briefly verges on a peaceful daydream before returning to the spooky; "Paranoid" alternates its raunchy stomp with a slow air of mystery; "Rat Salad" becomes a bonkers epic that breezes past multiple almost-finishes because seemingly nobody wants to let it end.

Amidst a share of articulate drama, the most insistent tone here is of jauntiness and fun. From a sharp-and-swanky "Fairies Wear Boots" to an "Iron Man" that swings like never before, the grooves are irresistible and everyone is clearly having a blast. The spirit of the songs stays true even when their forms become near-unrecognizable. If the spirit of the recently-departed Ozzy Osbourne was hanging over this whole tour, it is anyone's guess whether he would have been cackling like a madman or simply laughing with joy.

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