Having already released a hot contender for one of the jazz albums of the year even before January is out, British pianist John Taylor has been staking the same claim for the 2006 gig lists as well.

Taylor is touring with the musicians who recorded Angel of the Presence - the Swede Palle Danielsson on bass and Martin France on drums.

Lately, Taylor's jazz, classical, compositional, improvisational and listening skills seem to have fallen into some magical balance, with ideas streaming out of him so fast it seems a miracle that playing-partners can stay on his case at all.

Material from the Angel of the Presence album was transformed so freely that even the immaculate Danielsson occasionally cast a glance at France, as if enquiring where the downbeat had gone. Pure and Simple began with rippling piano figures that became a prancing dance. The melody of Kenny Wheeler's Everybody's Song But My Own emerged from the darts, feints and impulsive flurries Taylor had hidden it in to become a flyer on which Martin France made the rare departure of driving his ride cymbal with a stick.

Steve Swallow's Up Too Late was less post-boppish than on the disc, wandering in and out of tempo, with softly spaced piano chords framing soft clusters of bass counterpoint. Vaguely Asian opened with deep bowed bass against hustling drums, with surges of rocking piano chords punctuated by dead halts. Everything dovetailed as if it had been ordained by some supernatural musical force, but it was completely free at the same time. Very sophisticated music-making indeed.

· At Unity Theatre, Liverpool (0151-709 4988), tonight, then touring.