If there’s one thing that Wynton Marsalis does, both as a trumpeter and composer, better than most jazz musicians on the planet, it is to create atmosphere. Greeted by a roaring ovation as his band returned to the Barbican for the first time in a couple of years, he took a matter of seconds of solo playing on Duke Ellington’s Across the Tracks Blues to set up the feel of a small, intimate nightclub, as distant as possible from the formality of the concert hall.

Musicians chatted sotto voce, the trumpet moaned, and he instantly established the conditions for an evening dedicated to music inspired by the American railroad.

The combination of swing-era big band jazz and steam engines might have been expected to draw a crowd of men of a certain age replete with beards and sandals, and while a few examples of the species were definitely on view, Marsalis also managed his usual trick of attracting a fervent audience that crossed age and race boundaries, and who – despite the fact that many might never have encountered a steam train – thrilled to the band’s evocations of whistles and chuffs in pieces such as Ellington’s Daybreak Express and Happy Go Lucky Local.

There were only two composers on show, Ellington and Marsalis himself, and whereas the band’s first set of Ducal material was respectful rather than rambunctious, it proved that it is better stocked with fine soloists than on its last visit, with the impressive Sherman Irby on alto, and the young British trombonist Elliot Mason standing out, along with the band’s veteran Scottish baritone player Joe Temperley.

By the time the group got to Marsalis’s own pieces, it had relaxed, and the drummer Ali Jackson took some risks, really interacting with the soloists. Marsalis’s ballet music from Jump became a roaring vintage big-band romp, and the closing movements from his Big Train suite were more dazzlingly atmospheric than anything, finally evaporating in a hiss of steam.

Tour continues tonight at Colston Hall, Bristol (0117 922 3686); tomorrow at Harrogate Festival (0845 1308840)

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