Pianist Pablo Held is one of the leading lights on the Cologne jazz scene, often featuring at the annual WDR Jazz Prizes. A formidably talented young man, he seems equally at home in a variety of contexts, but with his trio (which often performs en toto with the equally talented saxophonist Niels Klein, for example, Rise and with Sebastian Sternal's Symphonic Society which, incidentally, Klien is also a member) he has developed an integrated ‘group’ sound that through familiarity of regular performance and learned responses to each others musical impulses have developed into a leading exhibit of German jazz. When an invitation was extended to John Scofield, they were not only surprised and delighted he accepted, but he also threw himself into the new collaboration. The result, recorded live in front of 2,000 people at the Cologne Philharmonic, is impressive. Centrepiece is ‘Kubrick’, Scofield's tribute to the film director Stanley Kubrick, a piece of almost 18 minutes in length that seems to develop organically from Scofield's introduction to assume a life of its own. Scofield also includes his own ‘Imaginary Time’ and willingly cedes the rest of the concert to three Held originals, of which ‘Cameo’ is a highlight, and Joni Mitchell's ‘Marcie’ that reveals Held's masterful touch with a ballad, something that is rare in one so young. Listening repeatedly to this quietly impressive album it is perhaps no surprise to learn that after the concert Scofield expressed a desire to tour with Held's trio.