Of the several headline acts at the Oxford Jazz Festival this year, Soweto Kinch was the only one who reaches out from the conventional jazz lover to a younger audience whose musical tastes don’t start with Coltrane and Parker. There are a number of players pushing jazz into new territory while at the same time paying all due respect to the history of the music, and Soweto Kinch with his highly energised mix of jazz alto and hip hop is right there. His music draws in new audiences in a way that much of a more conventional approach significantly fails to do.

Playing material from his new album, The New Emancipation, Kinch laid down his credentials as a jazz musician by opening the evening with a forceful introduction on alto bringing in the rest of the band on the statement of one of his many attractive riffs and melodies. His sax playing has from his first album been distinctive for a mix of raw energy and emotional depth, and even the uncontrollable ‘civic echo’ of Oxford’s town hall was unable to spoil the sheer power and musical intention of his playing. This was not just hard blowing; there were dramatic alterations to the dynamics and phrasing and the total awareness of the rhythm section led to constant shiftings of tone and texture.

The rap side of the performance, when the more conventional in the audience may have started to shift in their seats, had the power and imaginative energy to overcome the ‘civic echo’ and draw shouts of approval from the audience. Kinch’s delivery, the sheer power of his lyrics and the wonderful tumultuous precision of the whole band creates a heady mix of humour and social comment. A ballad turned out to be a sharp satire entitled The Love of Money. Jazz grew up in a world of social protest and Soweto Kinch is carrying that baton forward with unique talent and charisma.

Just to prove that such intensity is not the domain of youth, Tim Whitehead had given an object lesson in technical bravura and straight ahead jazz at the Spin the night before.