The Improvised Music Company's Sunday concert at Whelans saw the return of Dave Liebman who, with Mike Nielsen (guitar), Ronan Guilfoyle (bass guitar) and Conor Guilfoyle (drums), provided a night of uncompromisingly high-energy jazz, much of it on the outer fringes of tonality. But if that implies some kind of hit-and-miss approach, nothing could be further from the truth. Liebman's constant awareness of his own and the group's performance did much to shape and colour everyone's playing with, for the most part, considerable success.

It's a high-risk, demanding approach and occasionally it didn't work, notably on Ronan Guilfoyle's tricky Close Call, where there were some minor misunderstandings. But when it did, which was most of the time, it was visceral, exciting and full of surprises, typical of which was the soprano solo on the opening Wow, which resolved into a virtual duet with the guitar, while the fours with the drums, unusually, featured soprano and guitar simultaneously.

While Liebman's soprano marks him as possibly the best living exponent of the instrument in jazz, his tenor, showing Coltrane's influence, was especially logical on Cycling (where Ronan Guilfoyle's solo was one of his best of the evening) and the radically altered changes and line of In A Mellotone. On either saxophone, however, he was utterly in command of the group and they were responsive.

Perhaps the finest and most typical performance of the evening was Old Man Blues, which Liebman opened on wood whistle, developing a beautiful solo over a four-note bass vamp, with guitar and cymbals contributing colour. With the tempo increased, Nielsen and Ronan Guilfoyle contributed some fine solo work before Liebman returned, on tenor, to bring things to an incantatory climax. Throughout the performance - and the evening - Conor Guilfoyle's drums were outstanding.

Finally, Liebman invited tenor Michael Buckley to sit in for a rather careful Free Ballad and another no-holds-barred outing, this time on an original, Off A Bird.