Kris Davis trio
The Vortex, Dalston, London

OUTSIDE, Gillett Square was Saturday night Dalston-buzzing, and the cooking smells of Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mexico and Thailand were blowing like a universal kitchen all the way up Kingsland Road.

Here for one night were the Kris Davis Trio, with pianist Davis from Calgary, Alberta; Detroit bassist Robert Hurst and Philly drummer Johnathan Blake.

How they played in this curtained upstairs chamber, music that would blow away a thousand Trumps with their impassioned brilliance from their album Ride the Gauntlet, dedicated to six powerful female pianists: Carla Bley, Marilyn Crispell, Angelica Sanchez, Sylvie Courvoisier, Renee Rosnes and the late Geri Allen.

In Knotweed, a long duet between Davis and Hurst prefaced a sudden acceleration, with Blake’s rattling snares and golden cymbals and Davis’s flashing fingers making notes like raindrops. In Coda Queen, Hurst sounds as if he were on horseback, so rhythmically does he gallop alongside Blake’s pummelling drums.

This is expertly manicured music, played with a warm, co-operative spirit, the trio siblings smiling and acknowledging mutual virtuosity, completely attuned to each other’s artistry.

Across the square, Dalston life-energy and tumult still surged on. Was that Johnny Cash’s Wheel of Fire I could hear as I walked back to catch the Overground at Dalston Kingsland station? A thousand musics, a cosmos of London’s humanity all around me.

Don’t miss some of the March highlights at the Vortex: the outstanding Peruvian saxophonist Allexa Nava leads her quintet on March 5, Minneapolis pianist Craig Taborn and New York sky-seeking trumpeter Peter Evans are there for two shows on March 11, and the improvising electric/acoustic trio of saxophonist Paul Dunmall, drummer Mark Sanders and trumpeter/module synth/laptop virtuoso Alex Bonney will fizz Gillett Square on March 20.

For tickets and details of upcoming concerts see: vortexjazz.co.uk.