A big voice in Sony Music's jazz policy-making department as well as a formidable saxophonist and bandleader, Branford Marsalis makes news. And he and his quartet played their Monday show with conviction, empathy and awesome skills, if a little fulsomeness.

Though he has a relaxed and witty stage presence, Marsalis senses his place as a key member of one of the most influential families in jazz history. His music stands squarely in the rugged, ambiguously swinging, sax-led groove that emerged from the 60s - but if it has "classic jazz" written all over it, it's anything but formulaic. No band with pianist Joey Calderazzo and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts in it, as well as Marsalis's own teeming imagination, could stay in that trap for long.

Following an initially murky but eventually exhilarating set from the UK's Julian Arguelles, Marsalis hurtled on with an up-tempo post- bopper, In the Crease. The band then explored the music from Marsalis's current Requiem album, one of the most loudly acclaimed new jazz discs of recent times.

A soprano-sax intro with yelpy north African cadences led into Marsalis's affectingly mellow ballad tone, full of feathery nuances and deft turns, then accelerated to cruising swing for one of several scintillating piano solos from the increasingly compelling Calderazzo.

The Thelonious Monk-like Paul Motian tune, Trieste, revealed the band's inner understanding, with Marsalis's faster improvising building off nudges and queries from Calderazzo's keyboard. The rather melodramatic, film-score-like theme Cassandra opened wittily and the long, mixed-tempo, hard-driving finale unleashed roars from the crowd.