Right, I am not going to begin this review by saying something patronising about the strength of the current Scottish jazz scene. The fact that I live in London does not mean that I automatically assume that all meaningful cultural activity in Britain is confined to the UK's capital and am therefore surprised when some other part of this splendid, musically diverse isle proves to be rich in musical experimentation. But, on second thoughts, given that Scotland may no longer be a part of the UK by the year's end, perhaps it wouldn't be patronising to say it after all – what was previously condescending would be transformed by political partition into a potentially useful observation about an increasingly distant and very foreign land – Scotland, which is now as exotically other to me as Mongolia or Kyrgyzstan. Excellent. So: here's another fine disc spawned from the vibrant Scottish jazz scene (who knew?!). I'm a big fan of Glaswegian sticksman Stu Brown's Twisted Tales disc celebrating the work of Raymond Scott, whose music inspired the soundtrack to so many classic US cartoons. Not that the compositions of pianist and guitarist Ewen Maclean, which constitute 11-twelfths of this album, would be an appropriate accompaniment for the madcap adventures of Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck – well, only if they were set in Cuba or similar. Maclean has obviously learned some rhythmic tricks from his time living in Brazil and Mexico: opener ‘Metajazz’ and ‘Grovel’ have a definite latin spring in their step. The one non-original is ‘Choppin'’, which draws (can you guess?) on the compositional chops of Frédéric Chopin, and which, after a great solo spot from saxophonist Martin Kershaw, features a cheeky latin breakout. My personal favourite is the rippling, dissolving, smoky post-bop of ‘Snakier Warmth’ – a sumptuously alluring theme beautifully developed by a fine quintet.