Local jazz emporium The Trane Studio offered up a heavy dose of the fresh and new last Friday as it hosted the premier showcase for upstart series ‘Serious People’ with High Ass Standards. Despite the deceptively high-brow moniker, all attitudes and pretentions were definitely checked at the door as enthusiastic attendees packed the cozy Bathurst St. venue for a night of forward-thinking experimentalism.

To that call, the night’s two main acts humbly obliged with upstart duo Airheart kicking things off with a fresh combination of fluttery, jazz-inflected vocals, varied floor-filling rhythms and sporadic violin flourishes. From there it was on to seasoned downbeat vets LAL, as folks cleared out the tables for some much-needed room to move to the laidback threesome’s always inviting combination of inventive baselines, hypnotic rhythms and singer Rosina Kazi’s inviting melodies, bringing the temperature to a cherished boil on the typically cold January night.

If the success of that inaugural event was any indication, we can no doubt count on more from the ‘Serious People’ set to help us through this frigid Canadian winter purgatory.