Nikki Yeoh and Matthew Barley
Purcell Room, London
***

Jazz doesn't often escape from its smoky onstage cloister, but Nikki Yeoh and Matthew Barley like their listeners responsive. Before playing, they strode down the aisles handing out percussion to rustle during intervals. Later, Yeoh cajoled us into singing the theme she was teasing out. A cry for help? Not from Yeoh. It's about generosity. And fun.

At 26, she's still a rising star and this was her third year at the London Jazz Festival. Barley, her classically trained cellist collaborator, is newer to the South Bank. They looked an interesting combo.

In practice, their sonorities weren't always congruent. Four Yeoh compositions sandwiched Bach solos by Barley and arbitrary rustles from the plebs. Her first piece, Nostalgia, saw Yeoh delicately staking out space, hands like hummingbirds skimming multi-hued waterfalls of sound. She worked decisively and calmly, moving between the warmth and chill of modes with a painter's finesse. Barley was more intense, stroking his cello into sleep until a lightning minor descent. These little frights of sound were evident in The Search, too.

Birth had a cakewalk twang and Barley's syncopation, entwined with a slinky piano groove, built and released tension. Often, though, the cellist occupied more mundane space, see-sawing on one octave and scrabbling low without quite getting a grip. His own solos were rigorous and sometimes rich. The pair were at their best in The Request, the slithery cello drip-drying notes over Yeoh's grooves and flights. But one left wishing for Yeoh undiluted, and a little less generous.

***** Unmissable **** Recommended *** Enjoyable ** Mediocre * Terrible