(Picture: Garry Corbett)

“I’m lucky enough to be playing piano… alongside two of my favorite improvising musicians – Mark Sanders on drums and Paul Rogers on bass,” writes pianist Kit Downes on his blog, and we’ve been given only three chances to hear the results.

The trio’s mini-tour – a grand name for three gigs – opened at the Vortex in London last night, comes to the CBSO Centre in Birmingham this evening and hits Leeds tomorrow, where Downes will be playing organ instead of piano.

It might be a mingling of jazz generations, but it’s certainly going to be a meeting also of adventurous and challenging musical minds. I am guessing that Sanders and mulit-stringman Rogers will be playing very much in their established free improv style and that Downes will be challenging himself to match them in that milieu. But maybe I’ll be surprised…

One thing is for certain, Downes is equal to the challenge, his own solo and trio work suggesting his desire to break out of the structures when the mood is right.

Downes/Rogers/Sanders is the name, the CBSO Centre in Berkley Street is the place, 8pm is the time and £12 is the price of a ticket. You can book online at www.birminghamjazz.co.uk