Joshua Redman and one of two trios featured on his recent Nonesuch release, Compass, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Greg Hutchinson, played a three-night residency at Ronnie Scott's club in London through last weekend.

The Guardian gives the sets four stars. "The word 'weight' comes to mind when Joshua Redman plays the saxophone," writes the Guardian's John Fordham. "Not because of his appearance, which is lean, poised and greyhound-like, but because of the certainty of pulse, pitch and phrasing that marks out his improvising."

Fordham describes Redman as "a compelling builder of extended stories, and his pacing is masterly." He cites the sax man's "pure tone and high-register control" on one tune and his "slinky tenor-sax development" on another, both of which "started small and became a stomping roar, with the remarkable Hutchinson fuelling Redman's long lines with slick cymbal grooves stung by sudden offbeat snare-drum slams, and explosive fills that made you jump even when you were expecting them."

The Trio shared that energetic performance with an audience that "howled their appreciation for the rocking blues near the finale." All in all, says Fordham, it was "a demonstration of peerless sax mastery and group empathy."

Read the review at guardian.co.uk.

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The Financial Times gives the performances four stars as well. "Like [Sonny] Rollins’s, Redman’s improvisations have an almost architectural sense of structure, and both fully commit to in-the-moment improvisation," says reviewer Mike Hobart. "Redman’s impress by their focus, narrative drive and collective spirit."

Hobart continues:

Redman’s trio deliver an intense and fiery chamber jazz, where the leader uncoils a musical theme to climax in a moment of silence or four sustained notes, bent knowingly at the edges. It is a music of equal partners, a constant dialogue between Redman, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Gregory Hutchinson. The fractured breaks, snatches of improv and twists and turns seemed as spontaneous as the applause they immediately won.

Read the full concert review at ft.com.

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The Trio performs at Fabrik in Hamburg, Germany, tonight, then head to Berlin and Darmstadt the next two days. For tour information, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.