Playing since he was 12, Phil Ware is one of the most accomplished jazz pianists who, as a nuanced performer with a gift for performing a varied and challenging programme during his many concert appearances, both here and in Britain, was the Saturday afternoon guest at the inaugural Rosslare Jazz Festival.

Ware’s jazz epiphany began after viewing a documentary about Coltrane and, largely self taught, on a diet of Bobby Timmons and Wynton Kelly, he started to play alongside Jim Mullen and Tina May, and in the process was twice a finalist in the Young Jazz Musician of the Year.

He was accompanied by the excellent bassist Damian Evans, a member of the Hugh Buckley/Richie Buckley group, Isotope and has played with Terrel Stafford, Soweto Kinch and fellow Australians Jamie Oehlers and Paul Williamson. He is also well known for his contribution to traditional Irish music, recording with Gerry O’Connor and Sharon Shannon.

The Ware – Davis duo in La Marine, Kelly’s Hotel, captured the essence of what this small musical festival is about, with a relaxed, even caressing renditions of old jazz classics from past masters like Charlie Bird Parker (Relaxin’ at Camarillo), Jimmy Van Heusen’s But Beautiful and Billy Strayhorn’s Chelsea Bridge

Although Ware’s concise comments on his play list were drowned out by the din of a busy bar, the creative balance in the harmonic structure between piano and double bass (Bye Bye Blackbird and Groovin High) compensated for the competing crescendo of indifferent tourists.