A TRUE free-jazz legend, 75-year old Chicagoan alto saxophonist Anthony Braxton played three nights of standards in the Cafe Oto, with familiar melodies balancing on the sheer cusp of reinvention.

With Californian Steve Davis's empathetic drums, the echoing bass of Neil Charles and the hard-struck, often rampaging piano of Alexander Hawkins, Braxton had his listeners guessing the titles of the tunes he played, so close yet so far were his interpretations.

Suddenly, the quartet went into a galloping, stop-time version of Thelnious Monk's Well, You Needn't, followed by a stomping, blues-struck rendition of John Coltrane's Straight Street and you realised how much a part of jazz tradition this music is and, though full of innovation, love and astonishing discovery, how warmly familiar these tunes are.