Jazzwise to the Power of 15 Festival, Ronnie Scott’s, London

Jazzwise magazine celebrated its 15th anniversary with a boisterous week of canny beats, dense textures and a wealth of detail. In keeping with Scott’s house policy, outrageous extremes were absent, but pounding beats and urban bustle, world-tinged themes and an urbane homage captured the broad sweep, youthful vigour and cutting edge of contemporary jazz.

Monday opened with a pulsating, passionate and tough-at-the-core UK double bill. Bolton-born clarinettist Arun Ghosh referenced his Bangladeshi roots with a high-energy mix of sultry modes, forceful blowing and complex time signatures. The three-horn front line snaked, riffed and roared over jazzy grooves and upscale beats. Raw, raucous, and all the better for it.

The headline set was a one-off collaboration between the edge-and-cut power trio Troyka and the tight-as-a-drum Royal College of Music Big Band – the evening was billed as Troyk-Estra. Now the focus was intricate loops and a serrated jigsaw of interlocking beats. Guitarist Chris Montague and keyboardist Kit Downes conjured bleak, shape-shifting, soundscapes over drummer Josh Blackmore’s sparse, knowing and cleverly constructed rhythms. Warm-toned brass extended Troyka’s linear aesthetic with sultry veneers, well-placed stabs and their own sharp-edged lines, adding highlight solos for good measure – alto saxophonist James Gardiner-Bateman and Ralph Wilde on vibes the standouts.

On Wednesday, bass player Ron Carter, a 1960s Miles Davis regular, touched on the music of his former employer with a graceful, richly-detailed chamber-jazz quartet. Featured pianist Renee Rosnes delivered dense chords and sharp lines, but the enchantment lay in an intriguing array of paired-down textures and exquisite details

The set opened with prowling bass, sparse piano and delicate percussion – Rolando Morales-Matos, surrounded by a treasure store of things to shake, tap and scrape, made the isolated ping of a triangle an event of huge significance. Carter double-stopped, changed key, there was a tense modal stretch and features for talking drum and bass.

Carter’s band glided through silky originals and well-shrouded classics – “Seven Steps to Heaven” stretched by two extra bars; a modal melody gaining a flamenco shade; “My Funny Valentine” reverberating in space on one-fingered piano. Moods changed as though by magic, Carter was majesterial, and a beguiled audience clamoured for more. “You Are My Sunshine” was the somewhat surprising encore, transformed by Carter into a solo tour de force of pathos, humour and restrained virtuosity.

The final two nights were headlined by the equally virtuosic saxophonist Chris Potter and supported by UK bands with a fresh-out-of-school look – I caught trumpeter Laura Jurd brewing episodic riffs, Middle-Eastern scales and modal jazz into coherence. Potter’s band filled the classic form with new pathways, fresh ideas and oblique references to tradition – a Rollins classic in “Calypso”; a bop fragment now a brief, lilting dance. Supple and sensuous themes develop with baroque logic and, tightly argued – two taps mid-flow to confirm tempo – support a stream of invention.

Cuban pianist David Virelles’ long lines and light harmonies matched the leader, and Gerald Cleaver was both an interactive powerhouse and spaciously elliptic on drums – the lop-sided swish of Paul Motian’s “The Owl of Cranston” perfectly caught: his solo a rare and rhythmic blend of rattling snare and hi-hat manipulation.

www.ronniescotts.co.uk