Perhaps it did need two tenor saxophonists to overcome the chatter of a loquacious back row at London's 606, but if the subtleties of the first-half performance by Gareth Williams's trio were challenged by the ambiance, the Welsh-born pianist came out ahead by the final whistle. The second band on the bill was the brilliant young drummer Seb Rochford's Polar Bear, providing a heartening balance of improvisation and distinctive small-band composition.

Williams was with bassist Orlando LeFleming and drummer Tristan Maillot. Though Williams occupies a space firmly within the contemporary straight-ahead style, and his admiration for Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner is undisguised, he is a resourceful player of bold athleticism and imagination. The pianist sprang diamond-hard cascades of notes off the flying chords of the uptempo Mr KK (devoted to the late Kenny Kirkland). He kept the singing to a succinct introduction of You're My Everything, charging into a purposeful keyboard exploration of the tune as if hurling all caution to the wind. Williams's ability to assemble complex long lines on the fly was evident in a Chick Corea theme that wound up on an abrupt dead halt. The Bill Evans dedication Evans the Piano caught its model's blend of reflectiveness and steel, and Giant Steps was a seamlessly inventive uptempo extravaganza.

Polar Bear now delivers some of the most compelling two-sax contrapuntal jazz since the classic interminglings of the 1950s Cool School. Ambiguous, floating rhythms underpin piquant, smoky melodies, with tenor sax Pete Wareham the more patient, tonally brittle and Cool School-like, and his partner Mark Lockheart ruggedly closer to John Coltrane via Iain Ballamy.

The changing patterns of Rochford's understated percussion, Tom Herbert's dark bass presence and the slow dance of the two horns give Polar Bear an increasingly special character. A group with a significant future, if the circuit can sustain it.