The Pizza, now a much more corporate jazz entity than it ever used to be as the chain that owns it has mushroomed and tightened its management grip in enthusiastic pursuit of the bottom line, could have been fuller given the reputations for excellence of all four musicians here. There was enough of a crowd to encourage the band to play what seemed like an unexpected encore and the sound quality was characteristically good, only the muffled typewriter-like sounds spilling from the till breaking the spell.

Alessi’s band was the new Quiver line-up, the Baida band essentially with one change, pianist Gary Versace instead of Selma composer Jason Moran. Moran’s Bandwagon colleague Nasheet Waits (son of Blue Note and Motown drummer Freddie Waits) was the best thing about this gig in a number of ways including the sheer range of his percussive style: his high action stick drop and bustling assemblage of subterranean trembles of sound angling over in a bubbling-up from nowhere contrast to the more ascetic Alessi standing tall and whose precisely distilled rapier-like sound coiled around his highly evolved compositions that are very strong on structure and project a cerebral sense of unresolvable curiosity that draws you in as a listener.

The two sets included music from both ECM albums Baida and the new Quiver, the solemn ‘Maria Lydia’ from Baida one of the highlights for me; ‘Gone Today Here Tomorrow’ the best from Quiver in terms of the sheer arc of the improvisation and the journey from page to instinctive interpretation in real time a factor. Versace is a very different kind of pianist to Moran, less abstract in absolute terms and the Alessi writing angle has changed a bit, the pianist contributing some almost Romantic asides within the sweep of his rolling lines although the main hub and heat of the sound is essentially a conversation between trumpet, bass and drums in the more involved sections.

The second set was more open and better for it, full of greater freedom and gave double bassist Drew Gress a chance to came into his own. The way he can flatten out a groove and paint abstract colours is pure alchemy. Waits took a hefty drum solo late on and here he was able to slam on the brakes in a manner you’d never guess, just one obvious indication of his mastery of the kit as boss of the beat and the reactive qualities of his playing persona. Stephen Graham

Gary Versace, above, left-to-right, Ralph Alessi, Drew Gress and Nasheet Waits at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho.