Phil Robson, a guitarist raised in Derby, has forged a vivacious relationship with two prestigious American heavy-hitters: the bassist James Genus and the former Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis drummer, Billy Hart. The three have given themselves a challenge: a guitar-led jazz trio, mostly unaided by electronics or effects, demands a lot. If the sound of a spindly lead instrument in quietly linear conversation with bass and drums should pall, there's nowhere else to go. Robson doesn't get around this with pedals or gizmos, but has evolved into a resourceful melodic improviser.

At Pizza Express Jazz Club, the band pointed up its intimate links with the jazz mainstream by beginning with a standard, It Could Happen To You. While Hart pattered on brushes and Genus maintained his familiar mellow mid-tempo walking groove, Robson delivered a long solo with little repetition. Though supple extended lines are one of his strengths, he always sounds as if he's looking for new motifs on the fly, and that first break passed through several phases.

A diffuse Dave Holland theme, Processional, really required more penetrating instruments, but Hart rose under it with snare-drum smacks and restless rimshots - and the more interventionist he got, the better it was. A Robson arrangement of John Lennon's Jealous Guy brought a beautiful solo from Genus. The edgy, arrhythmic Impish deployed a harder-edged electronic embellishment. And finally, Screenwash, the title track of the band's new CD, with its restrained Metheny-like figures in the countermelody, soared into skimming swing for Robson to rhapsodise over, while Hart recalled the demonic whiplash drive of the late Tony Williams.