★★★★★

A buzzy and expectant atmosphere greeted the appearance of this much-touted ensemble. Pianist Drake wore his mantle of emerging talent with ease in a rare appearance on home turf before returning to the US, where he is currently pursuing a jazz career and studying at the esteemed New School in Manhattan. 

He sported a fetching black Stetson hat while taking the audience on a Lone Ranger-style journey through his world view. With a flamboyant smile and an idiosyncractic keyboard sound, he struck a balance between sparkling lyricism and modern percussive accentuation on The Verdict's Offenback grand piano.

On original compositions such as Bucharest and Garden of Eden, double bassist Tom Farmer and drummer Shanie Forbes highlighted Drake’s keen blend of melody and broad-sweeping harmonic textures. Each player added his own individual chemistry into the mix, however. Farmer distinguished himself as a passionate performer whose deep, heartfelt bass solo passages drew whoops and cheers from the crowd.

Meanwhile, Forbes’ fiery drumming was evidenced both in his interplay with the piano in his impressive stickwork on a West African- influenced number, dedicated by Drake to the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

At one poignant moment, Drake recited Rudyard Kipling’s “If” as both a nod to the power of human resilience and to his own Sussex roots. Occasionally, the pianist explored more of a modern classical slant, displaying the kind of tuneful hook worthy of composers Ludovico Einardi or Debbie Wiseman. In the main, however, he is a jazz player through and through, revelling in transatlantic cultural influences evident on finale piece Hold Your Heart with its New York Latin accents.

Confronting and engaging his audience, the one thing Dave Drake isn’t is predictable. But if uproarious applause, and calls of “genius!” and “encore!” are anything to go by, that suits tonight’s audience just fine.