From the accessible to the esoteric, Charlie Wright’s London Jazz Facecase last night was an evening of sharp contrasts in which horn player Shabaka Hutchings stood out, fully justifying his booming reputation. Opening with Mike Hobart’s alto saxophone-led group Motiv which asserted its bold and accessible blues-based Art Pepper-esque themes delivered with genuine conviction from the mid-way point of their set on. But did it challenge the listener?

By contrast Mark Hanslip’s Tom-Mix delivered subtlety and introspection that provided grist to the mill for the hardened enthusiast. Their musical arc found space between 1960s post-bop and the contemporary classical styles of Xenakis and Bartók. Hanslip’s intricate melodic streams of consciousness, reminiscent perhaps of Joshua Redman, were matched by drummer Tony Marsh and bassist Ollie Brice in their rhythmic and melodic phrasing.

Fire and brimstone rained down in the final set from the Alexander Hawkins Ensemble as Shabaka Hutchings, a veritable cauldron of creativity, assailed the audience with his gloriously uncompromising horn play. Pianist Hawkins’ compositions were stimulating in invention and engaging in form while bassist Dominic Lash delivered multi-textured harmonic and rhythmic patterns with a myriad of slapping, plucking, bowing and strumming, and drummer Mark Sanders kept time without playing time, dovetailing neatly with the others in the group. However, Hutchings could not be avoided. On both tenor saxophone and bass clarinet his almost overwhelmingly powerful phrasing at times echoed Anthony Braxton while his melodic development referenced Pharoah Sanders, as catchy phrases developed an ever increasingly rough textural edge culminating in fearsome thunderous expression. An emerging Brit-jazz rising star if ever there was one.

– Joseph Kassman-Tod