The Improvised Music Company's current programme continued on Wednesday with an excellent concert from the Bill Charlap trio, with the leader on piano, Mark Hodgson on bass and Stephen Keogh on drums.

They proved to be a tight and tidy unit. If the approach, in a group where the piano was cast as the dominant voice, was relatively conservative - there was little of the three-way dialogues that characterised, say, the Bill Evans trios - it was nevertheless full of the virtues of superb craftsmanship.

Charlap is a virtuoso exemplar of bop piano; he has a beautifully expressive touch, marvellous time, vast harmonic resources, abundant technique and a fund of ideas that show as much awareness of jazz history - he has a wily way with a quote - as they do personal inventiveness.

If, at times, the emotional elements seemed a tad kept under wraps, he still impressed as an extraordinarily gifted musician, as befits one whose playing experience has included Phil Woods and the late, demanding, Gerry Mulligan.

He had sensitive support from Stephen Keogh, in splendid form, and a fine bassist in Hodgson. The group's cohesiveness was also, no doubt, aided by the way they have worked little routines into the performances, signals that tip off what's coming next, but as a trio they had a collective control of the nuances of dynamics which breathed life into the music. And while the material included a share of standards, it also contained some delightful surprises.