It has been a good year for catching famous American drummers in intimate venues. Recently the mighty Elvin Jones rocked the foundations of Ronnie Scott's, and Bill Evans's former sticksman Paul Motian has just reached the end of a UK tour backing British saxophonist Martin Speake.

Stylistically, Jones and Motian are seen as opposites, the former known for his rumbling tribal work-outs and the latter for his soft brush work. In Sheffield Motian demonstrated that this is an oversimplification: he employed the same poly-rhythmic patterns that Jones uses, and sometimes played with a surprising amount of ferocity.

Motian fits perfectly into this quartet. Debussy-like piano motifs were lovingly laid out by Bobo Stenson, and the influence of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie seemed rather too obvious in a languorous piece called Three Hours, which featured carefully placed bass notes alternating with clustered, pedalled piano chords.

Thankfully, the French impressionists were not Speake's only stylistic touchstones - Cul de Sac had a Latin feel and In Code began with a grooving bass riff that could almost have been written by Bo Diddley. Throughout, Speake's saxophone remained a warm, inviting presence. His playing possessed a devotional quality tempered by a refined, European sensibility.

Despite the rarefied atmosphere there was room for the occasional colourful surprise. Mick Hutton's Caribbean steel drum solo was delivered with all the aplomb of a party trick, and there were moments of humour stemming from Speake's song introductions. Barefaced Thieves was dedicated to estate agents in the audience, while another piece was named after a diabolical guesthouse where the band refused to stay earlier on the tour.

But these were light moments in a heavy programme, with all four musicians achieving the rare feat of wringing genuine emotion from an extremely technical performance.