Virtuoso violin man and Aston Villa nut Nige returns with his third jazz outing: this one, he says, is a bit like his last one, the double CD A Very Nice Album, only shorter and more ‘user-friendly’. As we've come to expect from maverick Nige, it's a real mixed bag, pointing in all sorts of different musical directions at once. The writing – six of the seven tracks are originals – is so-so, but the playing is exemplary, the main man's contributions being equal parts Vivaldi, Hendrix and Jean-Luc Ponty The ballad ‘The Empty Bottle’ is pretty if a bit telly theme-ish and undeveloped, ‘4th Glass’ is a lengthy excursion into smooth jazz territory, while the closer, ‘Oy!’, is a ballsy prog-rocker and would-be successor to King Crimson's ‘21st-Century Schizoid Man’, which features an astonishing extended soloing from our beloved leader – it's the closest you're ever likely to hear to shredding on a violin. Then there's a lovely, gently swinging arrangement of Nick Drake's ‘River Man’ on which Nige and his regular Krakow crew are joined by Boy George and John Themis, George delivering the words in uncharacteristically low, gravelly tones. Which begs the question: why get in a big-name guest if they're going to try to sound like someone else?