Beats & Pieces, the inspired four-year-old big band, was formed from a core of Manchester music students under the wing of young composer/arranger Ben Cottrell. On its current tour's stopover at Ronnie Scott's it proved that last year's startling debut there was no fluke. Over the last 12 months, the band has generated enough home-grown material to keep audiences on the edge of their seats across two long sets; it attacks its music with even more infectious zip.

Beats & Pieces shows a sophisticated awareness of large-scale jazz (from Ellington, Mingus and Gil Evans to such innovative Europeans as Mike Gibbs and Colin Towns). It also possesses the collective vision to turn familiar big-band devices, such as hard-riffing trumpet parts and repeating ostinato hooks, into completely fresh melodies.

The evening began with a set from saxophonist Finn Peters's Trio, including tuba maverick Oren Marshall and drummer Tom Skinner. Beats & Pieces then opened with a roaring, percussion-heavy feature that gave way to the enigmatic Three, with its eerie muted-trumpets theme over growling trombones. A Mingus-like collective squall exploded out of an up-tempo episode built on a galloping bassline; and then a graceful songlike melody became a vehicle for Nick Walters's shapely improvising on trumpet.

Radiohead's Nude and 15 Step became rugged rhapsodies and fast-swinging bop respectively (the latter's groove drawing from Miles Davis's 1958 Milestones). Saxophonists Ben Watts and Sam Healey provided midnight-tenor brooding and soul-bop respectively. In their second set, the big band introduced an ethereal vocal approach that reinforced its connection with Radiohead, and the collective firework display intensified on the racing Jazzwalk. It's fitting that this tour is promoting an album called Big Ideas.