Skull-capped shrewdie that he is, Kenny Garrett hit town yesterday with a brand-new group. Keyboarder Jeff Motley and drummer Justin Brown, looked barely out of their teens. The third, Berklee professor Lennie Stalworth, played bass-guitar with a punchy economy that avoided straight four-four time all evening.

This ruthless reshuffle gave the US saxophone virtuoso a precious jolt of vitality.

Motley, a dab hand at synth effects from hot Hammond-organ to heavenly strings, took tantalisingly brief solos that might have lasted longer had Garrett not joined in on second keyboard, an ill-advised luxury that only inhibited his sideman.

Garrett himself opened via a pedal-box that reduced his hairy alto-sax sound to a toy electric violin. But Brown, a slim, whipcord kid with massive drive, rescued this number and lifted the entire session.

Every year Garrett comes up with a sensational new bundle of power, skill and stamina at the drum kit. Imagine a 21st-century Tony Williams and you'd get Justin, a storming player rooted in the fast, brittle crossrhythms of hip-hop. The jazz police might not approve but Brown's relentless momentum made Garrett's cunningly low-burning ideas sound hypermodern.

Charlie Brown Goes to South Africa featured a lilting township beat and a beautifully unexpected key-change, while Sing me a Song of Songmy was a storming 12-bar with changes similar to Billy Harper's classic, Priestess. "Any happy people here?" Garrett asked before going into his singalong hit. Indeed there were many.

Until tomorrow (020 7439 0747).