Over the years, and especially early on in his career, David Murray�s passionate approach to the tenor saxophone has presented a daunting prospect to the newcomer.

Star rating ****
Over the years, and especially early on in his career, David Murray's passionate approach to the tenor saxophone has presented a daunting prospect to the newcomer. Without diluting that passion, the Californian, who has been hailed as the most forceful improviser on his instrument of his generation, would have made a very persuasive case to even the most nervous of first-time buyers on this return to Edinburgh.

Playing music dedicated to musicians who preceded him, including fellow saxophonists John Coltrane and Johnny Griffin and pianist Thelonious Monk, as well as making personal tributes to his own father and "the next President of the United States" Barack Obama, Murray conveyed both a respect for musical styles and a flow of ideas realised in the moment.

His high register playing was particularly striking, with notes tumbling forth as if the instrument's keys might burn his fingers. Yet there was no sacrifice in tonal quality and when he switched to bass clarinet he produced, again, a beautiful series of sounds from lush to biting while injecting in turn humour and weightier musical reflections on the state of the world.

Much of this was played over dance metres courtesy of a terrific rhythm section in which pianist Lafayette Gilchrist excelled despite a piano whose tuning was showing some signs of festival stress. His ruminations in the style of Monk were particularly impressive and it was great, too, to hear drummer Hamid Drake, a giant of the improvising scene, playing a more conventional role with huge imagination, conviction and real percussive flair alongside Jaribu Shahid's sure and ample toned double-bass playing.