Sitting behind a very unpretentious drum kit, Dylan Howe (pictured) started off the first set at the Spin with a quiet, insistent groove which stilled the chattering of the expectant audience before the rest of the quartet joined in. Only when Mark Hanslip stated the melody was the piece recognisable as Coleman's Broadway Blues, by which time Howe's drumming was cracking and whirring like a sonic acrobat, often falling silent for a couple of beats or suddenly accelerating into double time then pausing and falling back to the original medium swing. The result was playing of great originality, the sinuous, angular lines from the melody being ripped and sharpened by Howe's extraordinarily expressive and attentive drumming to which Oly Hayhurst, on bass, responded with speed and empathy.

Although there were many great moments, the promise of this first number was not entirely carried through the rest of the evening. Howe's own piece, Teeni, seemed lacking in edge and the arrangement more pedestrian, despite some great soloing from John Turville on keyboards. Turville played consistently well all evening mixing a faultless sense of rhythm with a fast lyrical touch in the right hand though he rarely made use of the full keyboard.

In Monk's off-beat Bemsha Swing, with its bursts of melody well suited to Howe's multi-dimensional drumming, Mark Hanslip dug into his solo and produced some sweet, bursting lines with considerable technical prowess.

He also has a wonderfully warm tone that gave great expression to McCoy Tyner's Search for Peace, even if his soloing at other times seemed hesitant, perhaps the result of unfamiliarity with the material.

Some of the finest moments in the evening came from the interplay between bass and drums where Hayhurst seemed well able to second guess Howe's seemingly unpredictable alterations to the groove and thus carry the drummer's kaleidoscopic rhythm across to the front line players.

Although Dylan Howe is an exceptional drummer, the evening was not as forward looking as one might have expected - partly, no doubt, as none of the quartet is a member of the band that recorded Howe's latest album.