People start queueing as soon as a venue announces the name Marsalis. For the first of saxophonist Branford's four shows over two nights at Ronnie Scott's, the packed house was probably split between the curious for whom the magic name was draw enough, and a scattering of those who heard this same quartet's sensational visit to the venue five years ago. History didn't quite repeat itself in terms of that visit's jubilant spontaneity, but the quartet remains at the top of its league, with its leader clearly committed to expanding both his playing palette and his material.

British brass virtuoso Gerard Presencer fronted the house band before Marsalis's arrival. Presencer's glowing flugelhorn sound and meticulous polish on every note perfectly suits a standards-and-bebop repertoire.

Marsalis's group visited the material from its new album, Braggtown - which mixes fizzing high-energy tenor-sax postbop with new and startling soprano-sax voicings on slower pieces, as if Marsalis has been studying both the soulful cry of legendary jazz pioneer Sidney Bechet and the intonation of classical reeds players.

The brusque and staccato Mr JJ quickly triggered the band's remarkable four-as-one ensemble drive, with drum master Jeff "Tain" Watts' cymbal beat and explosive accents and bassist Eric Revis's seamless counter-melodies constantly splashed with bright colours from Joey Calderazzo at the piano.

Henry Purcell's O Solitude was a tranquil contrast, giving way to a heaving free-collective improvisation, veering between arrhythmic episodes, crash stops and bursts of swing, and another soprano-sax mood piece featuring a Calderazzo piano break of hypnotically rising intensity. This is a world-class contemporary band at the height of its powers.