Plenty of guitarists sound like Pat Metheny the improviser, but the American's ensemble blend of country-music, bebop, Latin- American dance rhythms and cannily adapted Brazilian vocal harmonies has proved harder to catch.

Pete Oxley, the Oxford-based guitarist, has created an attractive mix of his model's ensemble sound and a homegrown brew of original compositions with Curious Paradise.

Steve Hamilton, an excellent pianist with McCoy Tyner leanings, has refined the Oxley band's focus. His solos constantly raised the game, and so did his support for saxophonist Mark Lockheart, whose frontline interplay with Oxley's guitar is the group's heartbeat. A Methenyesque ballad set Oxley's legato guitar lines against the occasional clashing upstruck chord; Lockheart's soprano sax wove its way around Steve Watts' soft basslines; a sparkling Russ Morgan percussion solo began as resonant hand-drumming and ended as a blur of rimshots, cymbal sounds and bass-drum offbeats that rarely rose above a garrulous rustle in volume.

But Morgan's efforts were deafening compared to Tina May's. The singer's pillow-talking trio (in pianist Nikki Iles and saxophonist/ clarinetist Tony Coe it has two of the most quietly quirky improvisers on the circuit) refused to be hurried. Iles and Coe weave around May's light but flexible voice to make the songs and the improvising one. Coe slithered around May's languid delivery of More Than You Know, and his clarinet sprinted in uptempo unison with the singer on the Annie Ross-like swinger Bop People, which also featured a quietly stomping Iles piano break. Low-key, but high-class.