Joao Paulo O Exilio

O Exilio features a fabulous composer, great musicians and excellent jazz.

If you like very sweet and gentle spacious European Jazz then "O Exilio" will be quite a find. Sounding eerily like a power trio of Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek and Eberhard Weber, Joao Paulo (piano), Peter Epstein (saxophones) and Carlos Bica (bass) have produced a pleasant but not electrifying album of contemporary jazz that is poised and contemplative, with suggested almost restrained Latin (Portuguese) rhythms, resulting in a predominantly dozy amble through tinkling ivoryland, breaking about as much sweat as Dudley Moore's "Songs Without Words", punctuated by considered faster union runs which sound more self-congratulatory than excited.

Epstein is probably the best known here, having a rising profile from a string of decent recordings (especially "The Invisible"). However, here I find Epstein's tone more nasally thin than before and, in fact, slightly irritating. Paulo's frilly cascades are pretty but perhaps a little too flamboyant in places, in contrast to Bica who keeps well below the parapet, even when soloing. The album highlight is shared by all, the pleasantly lyrical introduction to "Fado", which, in another incarnation could otherwise be the calm before a Santana storm.

"O Exilio" promises an album of relaxation, if you can stay awake.