This was a good example of how context can alter one's perception of an event. Last time Kate Williams came to the Spin, she was the guest with the house band, a context in which the bluesy, somewhat angular, style of guitarist Pete Oxley acted as an effective foil for her fluid, highly articulate soloing. The contrast between guitar and piano accentuated the rapid and melodically inventive force of her playing.

On the other hand, her own band is fronted by flautist Gareth Lochrane, a player with a technique equal to Williams's own and a style that sits in the same vein of fluent arpeggios and well-rounded phrases. The result was that flute and piano, rather than playing off each other, seemed to be coming out of the same box, a situation in which the music can lack definition. The best jazz frequently feeds off diversity. If the soloists are playing very close to each other the result can lack the edge in which jazz thrives and the music is in danger of slipping into a chamber sound.

Given the musical talent in the Kate Williams Band, this may well be her intention, and the playing on an individual level cannot be faulted. Lochrane, who brought another first to the Spin by playing all four of the flute family - concert, alto, bass and piccolo - has remarkable control and projection on an instrument that is so often used as no more than a soft adjunct for sax players. Even on bass flute he was able to keep abreast of the often driving beat laid down by Brown and Maillot.

Williams is a talented composer whose melodies cover a comfortable spectrum of nuance and mood. Her soloing was as intense and defined as ever, with the ability to work a quiet magic on the harmonies and a magnificent technique allowing her to be both lucid and enviably fast. The drumming of Maillot, with sharp cross rhythms, sometimes came close to overpowering the chamber' sound from flute and piano. In some ways the softer feel was a momentary relief from the testosterone energy of the sax players who gild the present jazz stages.