Tomorrow's Warriors is more a jazz cradle than a band. Established by Jazz Jamaica All Stars bassist Gary Crosby as a vehicle to bring on young new British talent, it has helped former members such as Soweto Kinch and Denys Baptiste to stardom.

And the overwhelming impression from the concert given by the Warriors' current line-up at the Pavilion Theatre was that another star is about to be born. The way Jay Phelps arrived on stage with just the right combination of ambling coolness and certainty, his trumpet hanging from his hand as if he'd been born with it there, inspired confidence that these tyros knew what they were about. But when he blewwell, he blew the capacity lunchtime audience away.

This Canadian-born trumpeter once blagged a lesson from arch-conservative Wynton Marsalis and when they launched into their first number, a Phelps original called West End, it was clear this was a back-to-basics band. No funk or jazz-rock hooks, these guys played straight-ahead post-bop. Their line-up of trumpet, sax, piano, bass and drums was as traditional as their theme-solo-theme approach.

It was slick enough and the solos were impressive but something a sense of surprise was missing.

Yet halfway through the second number, when everything hushed and Phelps' trumpet began to soar over Neil Charles' repetitive two-note bass line, all of that changed. This guy could touch the sky and any sense of disappointment at the band's polite cafe jazz start was swept away as they took flight to a very special place.

Then tenorist Shabaka Hutchins, who was deputising for the band's regular alto saxophonist, deconstructed his own composition, seeming to discover ever-more outlandish variations to his lullaby theme.

Hutchins had had to fill in at the last moment and probably through lack of rehearsal time was not a perfect fit.

Still, he painted from a wider musical palette than the others, summoning honking, snorting sounds from his sax which stretched the essentially lyrical approach of the Warriors. Later drummer Shaney Forbes showed he, too, was someone to watch with solos which demonstrated both power and subtlety.

There was no doubt, though, that it was Phelps's show. Stepping out onto streets still pierced by the celebratory sound of children's parade whistles, it felt good to know that with young talent like that, the future of this sometime-endangered species of music was safe.