Gary Husband's career is as unpredictable as his music. Trained as a classical pianist, he somehow wound up as the drummer for Level 42, before deciding that his destiny lay in composing fierce jazz instrumental epics. His latest band is titled Force Majeure, and it includes American trumpet heavyweight Randy Brecker, eclectic keyboardist Jim Beard and former Mahavishnu Orchestra violinist Jerry Goodman.

They presented a show in two halves. First came Husband's skewed take on the music of Bacharach, Björk and John McLaughlin. The Bacharach segment proved the most rewarding, oozing forth in a trickle of electronic pips and squeaks with Beard's organ cadences conjuring the spirit of Joe Zawinul. Above it all, Goodman played his electronically-treated violin like a guitar, reeling off mind-bending phrases while Husband's drum kit and Arto Tuncboyaciyan's percussion created a labyrinth of cross-rhythms.

The show's second half featured a piece called Stone Souls, which Husband explained was an expression of his passion for architecture. It lumbered at first under the weight of some predictable fusion excess, but once Beard's Herbie Hancock-meets-Rick Wakeman keyboard solo was out of the way, the mood became friskier. Husband came out from behind his drums to provide some percussive piano lines for the short and shouty second movement, and then the band started cranking up for the firework finale.

Throughout the piece, Husband leaned towards staccato blasts of disjointed melody. Now he began drawing in the threads, using his drums to propel the band into one thunderous groove. The resulting explosion of musicianship was flabbergasting, and it had the crowd baying as if they were at a stadium rock show. He may get fiddly and introspective at times, but Husband certainly knows how to wind things up with a bang.

· At MAC, Birmingham (0121-440 3838) tonight and Turner Sims, Southampton (023-8059 5151) tomorrow.