David Paquette/De Cauter Quartet: S'Agapo

Reviewed by GRAHAM REID

(Herald Rating * * * )

Pianist and mainman behind the annual Easter weekend Waiheke jazz festival Paquette teams up with the Belgian family band who appeared there in 2001 on a series of tunes modestly recorded over two days at a private home in Ghent.

Homespun intimacy is the hallmark: Honeysuckle Rose can often be delivered as a bordello roof raiser but is treated as a delicate, light stepping European cafe piece with clarinet and Paquette's vocals muted.

Paquette and guitarist Koen De Cauter are adventurous and unexpected on the title track; Mean to Me is given a stately and spare interpretation and Beethoven's Allegretto joins them in the drawing room.

The location makes for lo-fi listening but there's also a sense of physical placement, and the interplay of clarinet and slightly slack-string guitar give this considerable downhome charm and informality. Not "guess you had to be there", because you feel you are.

Label: Bring It On