Stravinsky Duo

It is thrilling to hear Stravinsky in a ­Dalston jazz dive with a beer in your hand. Pianist Will Butterworth and drummer Dylan Howe's version of the first part of The Rite of Spring digs out Igor's Slavic jazz soul without losing the work's essence. They base their arrangement on the composer's own piano reduction, taking inspiration from Bernstein's subsequent version while also adding ­developments of their own. When ­Butterworth plays the urgent 5/4 ostinato of the introduction, Howe adds a busy EST-style groove that morphs crisply and naturally into hammering riffs. For all its notated ­precision, Stravinsky's music, like Bach's, lends itself to a wide range of interpretations – as long as the feel is right. The Augurs of Spring develops into a rolling 12/8 pattern over which ­ Butterworth improvises before ­picking out the swaggering melody in octaves. They twist the theme of Mock ­Abduction into a Monkish passage over ­swinging drums, while the emotional Spring Round Dances moves gradually from tenderness to brutality. All they lack is the really close ensemble sound that comes from extended touring. The Rite hardly pauses, and it's packed with big gestures and catchy hooks – things Howe knows all about. (He's the son of Yes guitarist Steve Howe, and drums in the ­Blockheads.) Howe traces his enthusiasm for ­Stravinsky to the time when Yes used Firebird Suite as an intro tape; the ­second part of the duo's set is a ­version of this equally celebrated score. The Stravinsky Duo might be an ­ambitious project, but it is fresh and ­immediate and engaged the full house.