SAXOPHONIST Alan Barnes had no idea that Friday's concert with pianist partner in jazz David Newton was being billed as part of the 2015 York Festival of Ideas.

"You're in the Performance section," What's On helpfully informs him. "Are we? I must look at my emails!" says the 55-year-old Altrincham musician. "But I'm sure we can come up some ideas to talk about."

After all, part of the chemistry between Barnes and Newton in their 37 years of playing together is the anecdotes sprinkled between the jazz duets, although the playing is the thing. "The idea is to always put a bit of magic into performing," says Alan. "I think the audience want to see something happening, and also, one of the things that I'm keen on is that jazz should be part of the entertainment business, when we've all experienced those po-faced jazz evenings."

Barnes and Newton's vast repertoire spans Louis Armstrong to Chick Corea with the emphasis on "swinging, accessibility and interplay". "But there won't be a set list; that might be frustrating for some people, but we just play," says Alan. "At some point, Dave'll start playing something or I will, and you've just to get rid of the fear of it going wrong.

"I maybe not as quick at picking up tunes as I used to be, but jazz is about the ability to make music with what you've got, so it's not just all about instrumental ability."

Here is where interplay and instinct come to the party, not least the instinct to know when to finish a number. "There are little signals you can give each other to end it, usually raised eyebrows," says Alan. "Or David'll start up a G flat to really test me and show he's in charge...though I probably call more tunes, but the role of leadership moves about all the time. That's the thing with playing jazz."

Plenty of ideas there for the Festival of Ideas to be contemplating.

Alan Barnes and David Newton In Concert, York Festival of Ideas, National Centre for Early Music, York, Friday, 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk