Sleevenote-wise, everybody is saying nice things about pianist Joe Alterman, particularly soul-tenor icon Houston Person, who guests on several tracks, and the even more impressed Todd Barkan, who produced this debut album. It seems churlish to curb their (and your) enthusiasm, but in the interests of actuality it should be reported that young Joe comes perilously close to smooth jazz. As close, indeed, as anybody sitting next to James Cammack (bassist to Ahmad Jamal) and Herlin Riley (sometime drummer to Wynton Marsalis) possibly could.

Joe never forgets that audiences want to enjoy themselves, we're told, but audiences don't want to be sent to sleep either, which is the primary effect of most of these 12 balladic tracks. Alterman's minimalist solos leave abundant space for the rhythm section, no bad thing, but consist of lonely, cutesy-poo lines at the extreme treble end of the keyboard, which soon gets very irritating. The only exceptions are ‘Kelly's Blues’, an Oscar Peterson number on which Joe trebles his energy level, and ‘Biscuits’, an original blues which maintains a powerfully skipping New Orleans marching beat. Otherwise recommended mainly to insomniacs and listeners recovering from Brad Mehldau or Vijay Iyer exposure desperate for a shot of unadulterated melody.