Great jazz pianists such as George Shearing often enjoy Mozart. Others, like young New Yorker Elan Mehler, are making this transition in reverse.

Mehler, a new signing to Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label, plays as Debussy, Ravel or Chopin might have done if teleported into a Manhattan basement jam session. It's jazz, but with a sophisticated 19th-century Franco-Polish accent.

When Mehler played the Vortex last year not a single rhythmic moment was heard - some sort of first, even for musicians fully dedicated to integrating jazz with classical music.

There was far more rhythmic interest this time, thanks to bassist Alexei David and an unusually busy line-up of two pianos, David Moore on Fender-Rhodes and Mehler on the club's Yamaha grand.

Saviour of the gig, though, was Tom Challenger, one of my forecast tips for the top in 2008. Behind his Meg Ryan crop and impressively unlacquered tenor sax, young Tom has a sharp musical brain.

His cool improvisations made admirable sense of complex numbers from Mehler's debut album, Scheme for Thought, with the two keyboards often comping simultaneously behind him.

Less comfortable was a guest spot by José James, a skeletal young baritone whose uncertain vocals were like watching a high-wire novice teetering on his tightrope. Some poetic turns of phrase suggests a stronger career awaits as songwriter or lyricist.