Vibraphonist Jim Hart is the 1996 BBC Young Musician of the Year percussion finalist who turned, in the noughties, into one of the UK's most creative new jazz artists; Ralph Alessi is an American trumpet virtuoso. They share an interest in maze-like melodies and tricksy time signatures – but they don't let their music's intelligence furrow either their brows or the audience's.

This formidably skilful transatlantic partnership was complemented by British-resident American bassist Michael Janisch and Loop Collective drummer Dave Smith. Early on, Alessi's lean, writhing phrasing and glittering high-register yelps steadily shook themselves free of the staccato patterns of Hart's theme Passwords, and returned in languidly twisting sounds over the vibra-phonist's whirling solo. Hart paid tribute to his recently departed former employer John Dankworth in the ballad For JD; if the theme was a shade evasive, the vibraphonist's clustered runs and Alessi's subtly weighted rejoinders warmed it.

Alessi had made statues look hyperactive up to this point, but he began a revealing weave on the ensuing Thelonious Monk feature, which he introduced as a nimbly skipping unaccompanied overture. He was soon joined by Janisch's thundering counterpoint and Smith's vivacious chatter of offbeat snare patterns, edgy rimshots, and immense drum-tone variety. The music took on a Latin-jazz quality in Alessi's intricate Morbid Curiosity, and in the second set Hart's spare but intense Dark Moon, and the rhythm-section's variations on the trumpeter's repeating one-note patterns, confirmed what a bright idea this meeting of sympathetic minds had been.