At his best, Joshua Redman seems a class apart for technique, invention and artistry. This US maestro has contemporary saxophone covered. He can do screams, honks and circular-breathing arpeggios with the best of them but merely as adjuncts to streams of wondrously clean, original ideas.

Redman recently released Back East, an update of Way Out West, the album on which Sonny Rollins used only tenor sax, bass and drums. The mighty Sonny, who plays the Barbican tomorrow, would have been flattered to hear him perform two standards from that epoch, East of the Sun and Surrey with the Fringe on Top, with a similar trio line-up.

The groove was immediate as bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Greg Hutchinson, a fine team discovered by Dianne Reeves, revelled in their extra space. Highlights included a blues, Hey Mama, whose long tenor solo built considerable heat, and a fugue-like tenor intro to Jobim's Corcovado.

Redman also paid generous tribute to his show-openers, Empirical. "There are a lotta young groups out there, but not many with their own sound," he noted. This London-based quintet, with altoist Nathaniel Facey and pianist Kit Downes in particularly good form, has obvious potential.

• Festival ends Sunday (www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk).