Chris Dave, the astonishing US drummer, apologised for the lack of time for a soundcheck on his one-night-stand at Ronnie Scott’s. Nobody minded. Some were probably mystified by what he was even talking about, since the impromptu soundcheck he spliced into the opening tune was as musical as anything in a set typically powered by R&B and hip-hop’s street-grooves, observant of the jazz tradition, yet as contemporary as the day’s headlines.

This band was different to the one that played Ronnie Scott’s last year - a little jazzier (keyboards replaced guitar), tonally richer through fine saxophonist Marcus Strickland’s broader sound-palette of electronic effects. But it was just as thrilling to witness in action.

Cheers greeted Dave’s first machine-like flurries following teenage keyboardist James Francies’s solemn organ chords, but a series of hit-and-run games between the leader and his partners followed while the sound issues were fixed – the drummer grinning mischievously and unpredictably cracking out short, exclamatory drumhits which the others reflexively batted back with terse chords. The audience was laughing incredulously by the time the group surged into a fast groove, featuring the first of several sleek organ and electric-piano breaks from the very promising Francies, and a growling, effects-laden tenor sax solo from Strickland. The latter brought a dark and throaty lyricism to the pensive follow-up on bass clarinet, but Dave’s fast-moving parallel-narrative percussion eventually pulled the piece back into a sax-led melee. A snappy R&B pulse then underpinned drumlike, single-note sax blurts, Dave disrupted the groove with jolting bass-drum offbeats, and a medley of Wayne Shorter themes, a snippet of Thelonious Monk, and a caressing of John Coltrane’s Naima (on Braylon Lacy’s bass guitar) confirmed how effectively this band makes jazz history sound cutting-edge. Chris Dave is undoubtedly a technical phenomenon, but he rarely hits a drumhead without a good musical reason.

Marcus Stickland plays in the Celebrating 75 Years of Blue Note concert at the EFG London Jazz Festival on 22 November.