Every player worth the mention lusts to perform with strings, it seems, and Oscar was no exception. The first first CD here collates In A Romantic Mood and Soft Sands both originally on Verve, each featuring lushly conventional string orchestrations by Garcia or Bregman, Oscar playing the melodies without fuss or over-ornamentation. As he says himself, “It's as though I’m down to the essentials. There's no strain and nothing superfluous.

The strings give a soft, pleasant background and the rest is up to me.” Well, that's this reviewer's work done, as OP gives these standard songs a neat working outline, hardly raising a sweat, the touch as nimble as ever, guitar heard occasionally, the strings, romantic and velvety, cascading or fading away. CD2 features DeFranco and the Peterson quartet in a Gershwin programme, again from Verve, and is brighter, Garcia's strings augmented by brass and woodwinds, the clarinet sound pristine and poised, this disc filled out with four tracks (ex-Norgran) featuring Rich as a rather engaging vocalist accompanied by Peterson with Gibeling's strings. Hard to think back to the intended audience for these albums: at best, they might have suited some dimly-lit hotel bar or have been good for late-night smooching, but Jazzwise readers are made of sterner stuff, for sure.

Too pretty for me: suggest ignore.