The 'f' word was much in evidence at The Spin Jazz club when Theo Travis' Double Talk was there last night. They play a fusion of prog rock and bluesy lines which are heavily influenced by Travis' love of the music of the 70s, but which retains jazz at its core. Definitely there was a lot of 'Double Talk 'going on.

Multi instrumental reeds man Travis has gradually built a reputation as a soloist particularly for his mellifluous sax playing, and is a regular visitor to The Spin to guest with the resident trio. Also he currently plays with progressive rock band The Tangent, the Soft Machine Legacy band, has a long-standing duo with King Crimson's Robert Fripp and has recently toured with Pink Floyd legend Dave Gilmour.

His fellow musicians in Double Talk are Mike Outram, guitar, Pete Whittaker, organ, and Nic France, a powerhouse drummer – all have progressive rock in their DNA. Though there is no bass player in the line-up (the bass lines were played by Whittaker's left hand) they clearly had the potential to be a thunderous raucous unit which could blow The Spin regulars out of their seats and do serious damage to the structure of the walls.

There were soaring tenor sax solo's from Travis usually followed by flowing guitar solos from Outram which sounded fresh while carrying strong echoes of the early 70s. But when cutting loose, they did so in a measured, contained way free of the excesses of prog rock bombast. This allowed the subtleties and nuances of Travis' considerable compositional skills and his strong instinct for writing appealing melodies to shine through. It did make me curious though about how the band might sound in a bigger room and with the after-burners turned up to max.

Still some of my favourite numbers from the gig were the quieter ones when the band reigned right back. As with 'Smokin at Klooks', a chilled languid blues-inflected tune which also seemed to hint towards 'Black Magic Woman', and is an homage to a small north London jazz and blues club where Clapton, Hendrix et al. played back in the day.

This came in the first half when it seemed The Spin crowd didn't quite get behind the band in the way they did later. A factor might have been the cover of the early Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett classic, 'See Emily Play', the only number were the arrangement did not work despite Travis' fine work on flute.

For most of the audience, the gig seemed to take off the second half with the cut down epic 'Everything I feared'. In its original form this number from The Tangent clocks is a mighty 25 minutes but Travis edited it down to a more palatable 10 minutes for his band. Again it had that reigned back feel with Travis excelling on flute, and Outram playing delicate textures in what became an ethereal, mysterious saga. Indeed Travis' flute playing throughout was really beautiful, and the way his flute combined with Outram's sensitive guitar to create some delicate harmonies was an unexpected pleasure.

All four players were excellent soloists, the only niggle, a positive one, was we did not get to hear more of Pete Whittikar soloing on organ. Even better though was the band's tight, grooved ensemble playing which carried a strong sense all of them listening to one another intently like all the best jazz ensembles. This quality showed in their ability to develop a tune and take you on a journey without lapsing into self indulgence, as with the 10 minutes of 'Everything I feared' and the even longer 'Transgression', the title track of their current CD. of mainly Travis' written originals.

This was no retro tribute band, and when Travis and Double Talk closed with the joyful 'Portobello '67' it seemed both a celebration of their love of a particular period in music and to be very now. A great live band and a great gig.