Hip! Who? Ray! Raydem Music***

Ray Preston is Ireland’s finest jazz chromatic harmonica player. The fact that he is also Ireland’s only jazz chromatic harmonica player shouldn’t necessarily detract from that accolade. Preston is a master of this seldom-heard instrument, with an easy-swinging style straight out of the classic bebop tradition, but it is a measure of his modesty that he has waited until retirement age to release a record.

His vocal impersonations of Sinatra and Nat King Cole on a couple of tracks are uncanny, but they perhaps push the record towards cabaret and away from Preston’s evident talents as an instrumentalist. As a first record, after all these years, it’s a fine summation of Preston’s art, but having broken his duck, perhaps a second album will liberate the artist that lurks behind the showman.

See myspace.com/ray_preston