Glasshouses

Keyboardist Lascelles was a founder member of the Global Village Trucking Company in the early 1970s, going on to become a session musician, playing with The Breakfast Band, and forming his own Tribal Music International label. This quartet set features several guests in various combinations, Lascelles playing piano and electronic keyboards, as well as the occasional dulcimer, melodica, balafon and a big bag of Afro-percussion. Despite trimmings from exotic musical zones, this is fundamentally a smooth jazz project, delivered in bland fashion, with almost zero grit, tension or dramatic flair. Traces of calypso, reggae, salsa and Gypsy jazz move through the leader's original compositions, with added flute, saxophones, steel pan, guitar, ukulele, violin and vocals.
It's mostly horribly frothy, sinking into an absolute trough with the sickly reggae hymn of ‘Gadriel’. The best moments arrive when alto saxophonist Tim Herniman is soloing on a couple of numbers, tipping in some genuine passion during his brief spotlights. On ‘Ziyane’, Lascelles manages to combine Gypsy jazz motifs with a salsa-styled piano solo, but the album concludes with further easy listening piano-anddulcimer stretches.