One of the leading lights of Chicago's contemporary jazz scene, Ken Vandermark has begun his second UK tour in two years. Last time he terrorised us with the boisterous clamour of the Vandermark 5; this time he has teamed up with musicians from Norway and Sweden to offer a more varied program. The abrasive rowdiness was far from banished - What About combines Mingus-like fury with a raggedness worthy of Captain Beefheart - but tunes such as Passenger drifted so ethereally they evoked images of infinitely expanding galaxies.
Vandermark began the piece with a saxophone drawl halfway between dejected and ruminative, eerily shadowed by Kjell Nordeson's vibes. Ingebrigt Haker Flaten picked up the theme with some mournful slow-bowing on his double bass and Jeb Bishop's trombone developed it with the languor of a day-dream. Leaving open spaces and pin-drop silences, the band seemed to be inviting their audience's minds to wander before coiling them back in with some sneaky little phrase.
The mood abruptly changed with a Bishop composition, Bookworm, featuring a rabble-rousing solo from Vandermark. Beneath his squalls Bishop used his trombone to imitate the sound of chamois leather on glass, lathering up to a tempestuous climax while drummer Paal Nilssen-Love did a blistering impression of Elvin Jones in full splendour.
Nordeson, the band's Swede, injected an almost Baroque Europeanism into the band's sound, his vibraphone solos as nimble and precise as a Bach fugue. Vandermark's abrasive bluesiness provided a riveting contrast; lurching backwards and forwards he tortured each phrase that fell from his lips, simultaneously swinging them for all they were worth.
The final two numbers laid out the band's contrasting wares. A Don Cherry tune served as a springboard for a truly terrifying duet between Vandermark and Nilssen-Love, while Bill Evans's Loose Blues gave Bishop the chance to construct his most lyrical solo over an almost impossibly delicate backdrop of pastel shades. An eclectic and imaginative band with some extremely abstract ideas - you'll need your brain plugged in to enjoy them.
· At the Purcell Room, London (020-7960 4242), tonight.
