It’s always interesting when a ‘fusion’ guitarist downsizes from a quartet or quintet to a trio. Suddenly he/she is in charge of harmony and melody, and if the format offers more freedom there’s also the potential for stasis in the dynamics department.

Steve Khan was a pioneer in the 1980s, Robben Ford in the 1990s and Scott Henderson has raised the guitar-trio bar very high over the last 20 years or so, but now Israel-born/New York-based Oz Noy is on their tail.

After 20 years of recording mainly with keyboard players, he’s venturing out with a truly A-list bass and drums duo alongside him: Jimmy Haslip and Dennis Chambers.

So expectations were high at this enjoyable gig, mainly performing material from the trio’s 2023 live album Triple Play. But what was unexpected was how much the players kept their formidable techniques in check – this band seems just as influenced by organ trios as it is by high-octane jazz/rock.

Opener ‘Zig Zag’ perfectly illustrated this, before ‘Groovin’ Grant’, Noy’s soul-jazz tribute to Grant Green, featured lovely behind-the-beat swinging from Chambers and a fast shuffle section that took Noy into Robben Ford/Stevie Ray Vaughan territory.

Monk’s ‘Bemsha Swing’ was reimagined as a rock/fusion ballad, showing an influence of Steve Khan’s Eyewitness band (Chambers being an alumnus), with Haslip in full-on, prowling Anthony Jackson mode, while Charlie Parker’s ‘Billie’s Bounce’ was reimagined as a slow-motion ballad.

‘Boom Boo Boom’ chugged along with almost a Beatle groove, complete with a brilliant Ellington-style chord solo from Noy, and Chambers finally let rip with one of his brilliant, wrongfooting solos over a static vamp.

Jaco Pastorius was celebrated as a breakneck ‘Donna Lee’ segued into ‘Third Stone From The Sun’, before a brief run through the Meters’ ‘Cissy Strut’ came complete with umpteen modulations. A solo, reharmonized version of ‘Giant Steps’ miraculously came close to the soundworlds of Ralph Towner and John Abercrombie, while Noy wryly introduced ‘Chocolate Souffle’ as ‘my greatest hit’, a soul/jazz groover with Chambers doubling up the time in Philly Joe Jones style.

Noy is a technically superb player with total mastery of his Strat, fleet-footed too with copious use of octave, tremolo, loop and backwards pedals. He’s also interesting in that his guitar voice comes out mostly when comping and riffing.

When soloing, he can be a little faceless, sounding like Eric Johnson one minute, SRV, Robben Ford, Hendrix or Henderson the next. But all the harmony is there. It’s an acquired taste, but it’s jazz, even if it doesn’t always sound like it.