Scottish pianist Dave Milligan's trio and the Perrier award-winning young singer Niki King were opening the Pizza Express's five-night festival of music on the Edinburgh-based Caber label. Milligan performed with a camouflaged virtuosity and creative independence on a promising repertoire of originals. King sang a good many standards, and was sensitively assisted by the acoustic guitarist Marcus Ford.

By the later stages of her hour sitting undemonstratively on a stool alongside Ford, King had the audience in the palm of her hand. Her subtle soul-phrasing, adding poignant quivers to the resolutions of lines, appeared in a nod to Donny Hathaway on For All We Know, and more loosely and expansively on a fast, choppy funk piece that exploited the rhythmic virtuosity of Marcus Ford. A sense of enchantment resonated through The Very Thought of You and Nature Boy, and she made every murmur count on the title track of her new Azure album. The only drawback was the extent to which her programme was skewed toward the brooding and contemplative.

Milligan played the second set with a cracking trio featuring Tom Lyne (bass) and Tom Bancroft (drums). He began with what half-suggested the Giant Steps chords played slowly, but with a fizzing Bancroft sustaining an uptempo pulse against them. The original, Small World, had a fervently jigging, Scottish-dance feel, and Milligan revealed a favourite signature sound, a percussive clamour on a fast-repeated single note. Boiler Man was a straightahead swinger with the jubilant block-chord sound of the late Red Garland in it. How Are You Feeling Today? (dedicated to the Scottish psychiatrist RD Laing) exactly suggested that question being frenetically repeated. Milligan's Late Show debut album will be one to look out for in the summer.

· The Caber festival ends tomorrow. Box office: 020-7439 8722.