Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival: Nathan Somevi Trio, St Bride's Centre, Edinburgh ****

First night of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival and a crammed Jazz Bar is hosting guitarist Nathan Somevi and his trio, yet more emergent talent from the seething young Glasgow scene.

Informed by US player Charlie Hunter’s distinctive guitar-bass technique, Somevi cuts a tall, amiable onstage presence, producing often spacey but warm-toned music from his custom-built hybrid electric guitar.

Whether plucking stealthy riffs from the instrument’s bass strings or producing reverberating chimes and sighs, he was deftly complemented by his trio colleagues, tenor saxophonist Simon Herberholz and drummer Niall Ford, the three locking in well together, sax at times bolstering riffs or singing against Somevi’s shimmering chords.

Some numbers were so new they remained nameless, though invoking a powerful trio sound. Others were from Somevi’s debut EP, Can’t Be Done, such as Family Party, its township bounce working up a groove with honking sax and purposeful drumming before the guitar came in to tie everything together; also the enigmatically titled Unsettled – unsettled maybe, but not without relish, its beaty development mounting to a drum break over sax and guitar interjections, then a contrasting, gently lingering conclusion.

Somevi deploys mellow funk and the limber swing of African jazz, reflecting his Ghanaian heritage, but also writes with stacks of melody – also from that debut EP (and one of his earliest compositions, apparently), Happy Times, with its gently descending phrases, could almost have been an old Beatles number, while guitar and sax gave unison voice to the catchy hook of Hymn, a homage to the church music with which he was raised.

And there was a surprise interlude, with just guitar and drums, in the shape of an affectionate treatment of Presley’s Love Me Tender.

The Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival runs until 23 July, www.edinburghjazzfestival.com

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival review: Nathan Somevi Trio, St Bride's Centre