John Mayer's Indo-Jazz Fusions, the double quintet he formed with Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott in the 1960s, was ahead of its time. Since then we have had Miles Davis's On the Corner, John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, Trilok Gurtu, Talvin Singh and many more such fusions, but Mayer was definitely a pioneer. His concept, though, was very much of its time, and his new line-up, which includes his son Jonathan on sitar, still has the sound of the 1960s.

This is partly because of Mayer's scores, which blend sophisticated jazz composition with the scales and asymmetric metres of his Indian classical music background. The instrumentation is an acoustic jazz quintet plus sitar, tablas and flute, with the leader playing a little violin and directing.

Acoustic piano and sitar are placed at opposite ends of the stage, and flautist James McDowall provides a bridge between the two idioms. The trickiest part of the fusion is the rhythmic emphasis: a swinging rhythm section does not always mesh with Indian drum patterns, and the group's boogaloo can sound a bit polite.

Some pieces draw their strength from the tension between two contrasting feels played simultaneously. The best bits were not so much fusion as juxtaposition, such as the thrilling moment when a complex passage of ensemble writing suddenly gave way to wild, ultra-fast improvisation from tablas (the excellent Sandip Chakravarty) and sitar. There were fine transitions too, from dense, polymetric counterpoint to sparse, free-ish jazz. Yatri: the Traveller, composed by former IJF member Stan Sultzmann, was a highlight, with a loping groove, serpentine melody and great solos all round. It was fascinating to hear Mayer play the sitar as a solo instrument, with an unusual sound that evoked both the lonesome buzz of a tin-muted trumpet and the supple twang of jazz guitar.