Talking about Fourplay’s silver anniversary from the stage of New York’s Blue Note Jazz Club on Dec. 1, the formidable bassist Nathan East related his wife’s reaction to the group’s milestone. “I don’t know—25 years of Fourplay? Isn’t it time to get down to … ?” East didn’t need to finish the sentence for the capacity crowd to start giggling.

The slightly risqué name, however, has always had more to do with the playful nature of the all-star instrumental jazz/pop quartet (Bob James on keyboards, East on bass, Chuck Loeb on guitar and Harvey Mason on drums), which delights in tossing melodic and rhythmic ideas around the bandstand like the Harlem Globetrotters moving up the basketball court. That kind of synergy only gets better with age.

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