Wednesday's visit of veteran jazz pianist John Bunch produced, as expected, craftsmanship of the highest order. Supported with a degree of empathy that was nothing short of extraordinary by bassist Dave Fleming and, especially, by drummer John Wadham, he played a programme which exemplified the considerable virtues of the piano style of which he is a distinguished exponent - a bop idiom, with its roots in the swing era and its harsher, bop-derived elements softened.

In Bunch's hands, it reaches back to Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller and Art Tatum (even, on a blues, to such distant figures as Jimmy Yancey), but it essentially relies on Bud Powell's bop vocabulary for much of its linear inspiration, as well as a firmly-established concern with the dynamics of each performance. As such, it's a language with a well-understood series of conventions, which enable capable musicians familiar with them to meet on common ground.

This trio did so to such an extent that they sounded like a working group. On Speak Low, for example, everything was beautifully organised, with Davis's Milestones used as a recurring motif, either stated or implied, as part of the structure of the performance. As always, dynamics were brilliantly observed by the unit, tipped off by the merest nuances of accent from the piano; Shiny Stockings, A Sleepin' Bee and Jitterbug Waltz (perhaps the highlight of the evening) were typical of this.

Bunch kept his colleagues constantly on their toes, even on the familiar; Emily, in elegant 3/4, was lyrically reassessed in terms of line and harmony, Prelude To a Kiss morphed into In A Sentimental Mood, which became Sophisticated Lady and then segued into Take The A Train, while Bess, You Is My Woman Now became an introduction for I Got Rhythm, which in turn became Crazeology and Rhythm'a'Ning. It was that kind of night.