The most inspired moments in live jazz often happen towards the end of a tour when a band reaches a level of empathy and trust only possible after many hours shared on the band stand. Kairos 4tet, which has just completed a string of live UK dates, packed in several such moments at the 606 on Wednesday night.

Kairos 4tet now includes two-thirds of Phronesis in bassist Jasper H?iby and newly recruited pianist Ivo Neame. These are both players who, like drummer Jon Scott, take rhythmic complexity in their stride, allowing the leader Adam Waldmann’s strong compositions plenty of room to breathe. Standout pieces included opener ?Hymn to Her’ with its beguiling Middle-Eastern tinges and the energetic ?Russell’s Resurgence’, both of which featured on the band’s 2009 album ?Kairos Moment’. A few promising new compositions featured in the second set, including ?You And Me, 100 Degrees’, amusingly named after a conversation between Waldmann’s drunken friend and a kettle.

Waldmann is no slouch as an instrumentalist either. On soprano and tenor, he showed how to pace an improvisation perfectly, drawing in the listener with twisting melodies which were patiently developed from unassuming two or three-note motifs. Neame’s resourcefulness as an improviser was as impressive as ever, and while his many influences were on display?notably, Herbie Hancock on ?Hymn to Her’, he avoided cliché the entire evening. H?iby, meanwhile, underlined his status as one of the country’s most in-demand bassists with his mix of clarity, precision and inventiveness. A particular highlight was the interaction between Scott and H?iby: the drummer’s intriguing dialogue with H?iby’s kinetic playing was met with grins of approval from the Danish bass player.

Guest vocalist Emilia Martensson’s contributions on two numbers added a new dimension to the group’s sound, and on the beautiful ?Unresolved’ suggested that Kairos 4tet could soon find itself winning new fans well beyond the nation’s jazz clubs. On the basis of this evening’s performance, the group more than justified the plaudits it is beginning to garner this year.

Special thanks to Tom Gray and Sebastian Scotney of the London Jazz Blog for this review.
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