This well-worked jazz duo roams freely around the Cuban folk, jazz and classical traditions, reflecting both musicians’ pedigrees. Puente held the first violin chair in the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba while also playing in Havana’s many clubs. He toured internationally with modern Cuban music group The Cuban Boys before settling in the UK in 1997; London- born Mitchell has an equally rich and diverse musical history.

At this gig – the launch of their debut CD Bridges – the pair revealed a deep empathy, second-guessing each other’s musical moves.

Mitchell’s florid piano style matches Puente’s soaring violin tonally, and the arrangements move seamlessly through romantic single-note melodies with jazzy backing to tongue-in-cheek pizzicato pluckings reminiscent of the Argentine composer Astor Piazzola.

Both sets started with tricky riffs supported by swirling Cuban dance rhythms that, like the final “Mambo Influenciado”, were full of cunningly placed unison patches and deadstops.

Mitchell is a great accompanist, but takes full advantage of his extended solo passages, delivering jagged rhythms and flamboyant piano athletics without self-indulgence. Puente can be equally full- on with his repertoire of slurs, bowed chords and whispered scratchy arpeggios.

The real plus at this gig was the way the rhythmic traditions of jazz and Cuban music were integrated with the mournful serenity of folk music and the harmonic richness of classical music. This was at its strongest on “Reflections of a Bee Humming Bird”, inspired by “the smallest bird in the world, the size of a postage stamp”. Here Mitchell’s rippling arpeggios and fluttery high notes combined with chirrupy violin to give a somewhat literal, extensively notated, musical depiction that yielded into strident and dazzling improv.
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