‘His balance and innate sensitivity make him one of the finest jazz bassists around today.’ So wrote Oscar Peterson of George Mraz in his autobiography. Mraz is also a fine fly-fisherman, apparently. As Rob Olsen says in his liner note here, “The moment I met George I remember thinking, ‘Well, I don't know how good you are on that double bass but I know you can fish’.” Well, Rob, he's really pretty good on that double bass, you can take Oscar's word on that, and appropriately it's mostly Mraz's musicianship, rather than his ability with a rod and tackle, that shines through on this release from the British-Czech label Cube-Metier. It's a determinedly low-key affair, nonetheless, which documents a private charity concert (given, judging by the modest applause between tracks, before a fairly small audience). Mraz and Zoe Rahman – a brilliant pianist about whose fishing competencies Rob is curiously silent in that note – had never met before, but they lock step readily enough on a selection of originals (four by Mraz and Rahman's lovely ‘April Sun’) before heading off into traditional Moravian territory and finishing up with the love theme from Cinema Paradiso.