Perhaps the history books will remember saxophonist Elton Dean as the man Elton John asked for the loan of a name. He might also be recalled for his four-year membership of the celebrated genre-crossing late 1960s band, Soft Machine. But for his own sax-playing, which had character and independence 30 years ago and retains it still, Dean may not be remembered. He rarely plays in Britain, and his recorded work is hard to find.

You have to look in the nooks and crannies to find Dean performing live, too, but he turned up this week at Klinkers in the Sussex Arms in Islington, north London. The saxophonist has long occupied the border territories between rugged semi-orthodox jazz and total improv, and this performance focused on the latter - partnering him with the improvising singer, Maggie Nicols, and a subtle and unobtrusive free drummer, Dave Fowler.

Dean's playing always sounds fresh and familiar. On alto sax in this trio, his ideas were consistently reflective of the sounds around him, yet tautly melodic and acutely tuned to the loose rhythmic sway of the improvising. Nicols consistently broke the cordon between autobiography and performance, and her solos whirled through successions of abstract, instrument-like lines, exclamations, imprecations and bursts of gabbled speech. A former dancer, she also veered into a sort of free-improv soft-shoe shuffle from time to time.

However feverish Nicols became, Dean retained a reflective calmness, his bittersweet sound and twisting, eager melody lines curling around her. As the three came closer to a tonal and rhythmic centre and the music became more animated and organic, it took on a lithe, flexible swing. Dean started rising to Coltranesque split-note sounds and, as he warbled or trilled, Nicols would turn the sound into yodels and hoots. Then there was a period of stillness, then another clamorous acceleration - and then they all stopped dead. It was an exercise in expertly shared non-idiomatic music that would have delighted more than the handful of devotees who caught it.