Former Tomorrow's Warriors pianist Robert Mitchell often seems like a man brooding over a chess problem. Considering that he made a mark in the 1990s in the young and funky crossover bands Quite Sane and J-Life, and climbed high enough up the local jazz pyramid to open the show for Wayne Shorter on a recent tour, such a private manner might come as a surprise.

But Mitchell is the very model of a postmodern jazz musician. He seems to pore over the intricacies of jazz, soul, funk, Latin and classical music, moving them restlessly around like pieces on a board. You rarely feel that Mitchell is much tempted by the playful urge of many jazz musicians to see how one string of notes sounds against another, just for the hell of it. He is, however, a brilliant pianist with a thoroughly individual sound and approach; every year he seems to get closer to realising his dream of what all his favourite idiomatic ingredients might perfectly mix down to.

Mitchell is launching a new CD with his band Panacea, called Trust, on the F-ire Collective's label. F-ire's devotion to cross-genre, percussion-dominated rhythmic innovation was clear at Mitchell's gig, with Volker Strater and Richard Spaven sharing the percussion duties. Mitchell's interest in the rhythmic counterpoints between percussion, sax lines, vocals and streaming Herbie Hancockish double-time piano often produced the engaging atmosphere of a kind of animated trance. His playing was constantly diverting, notably in a phenomenal solo display of buzzing runs, jarring chords, light-speed lyricism and bumping cross-rhythms near the end of the first set.

Several pieces built from long, winding soul melodies through intensifying collective playing to big finales. Some explored new twists on Latin rhythms, or overlaid themes in dreamy ballads. Mitchell doesn't write many tunes that you can whistle in the street, but he's a highly focused original who's heading where he's heading no matter what.