New Yorker John Patitucci is the brilliant cornerstone of Wayne Shorter's remarkable quartet. At Pizza Express, the 43-year-old double-bassist performed his own repertoire of reworked standards and the rootsier material from his new album Songs, Stories and Spirituals. While the disc tends occasionally toward over-manicured solemnity, the show caught its best features without sacrificing the momentum. The core band was an eagerly co-operative piano trio (with regular sidekick Ed Simon and vivacious young Cuban drummer Francisco Mela), with other ingredients from the new repertoire sparingly introduced as guest spots.

Mela's incandescence was evident from the opener, Patitucci's Tall Tales, a conjunction of snaky mid-tempo melody and fast swing. The contrast of Mela's chattering fills and luxuriously lazy cymbal beat meshed with the leader's graceful countermelodic playing, and triggered fresh and pithy interjections from the thoughtful Simon. Patitucci's agility and precision in the upper register coloured both the opener and the Jobim Latin feature that followed, and singer John Thomas appeared for two sonorous spirituals with an exquisite bass solo of soft slurs and dark bluesy figures in between.

His brother, guitarist Tom Patitucci, appeared for a quiet ballad and a rather indecisive long-lined theme that showcased the leader's six-string bass guitar virtuosity. Then the leader, Simon and Mela were all on the boil again for a churning dedication to Hermeto Pascoal. The bassist's dedication to departed bass hero Ray Brown brought a jubilant chorus of jostling bebop quotes to the encore.