"Mike Karoub's free-wheeling cello playing is such a knockout it's a wonder there aren't more jazz cellists. Maybe they're just afraid to sneak out of the conservatory. Listen to him tear it up on the full-band 'Viper's Dream' or the album-ending Lang & Venuti vehicle 'Raggin' the Scale'." Chris Reitz - Lansing State Journal

Michigan's Royal Garden Trio has managed to make an ambitious, broad-ranging album that surpasses even its first - and that's no mean trick.

In fact, RGT's vigorous musical hybrid - blending the Parisian cafe with the American nightclub,manages to be fresh and original without being exotic; a rarity anywhere and nearly unheard of in jazz.

Davison's Tom Bogardus (who wrote the album's two originals) doubles on tenor guitar and clarinet, with a hard-edged, straight-ahead, Sidney Bechet-like style. Many have chops, but only the best can really make the ballads sing; and Bogardus's lyrical soprano sax on Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday" is an album highlight.

Guitarist Brian Delaney admirably distances himself from the faster-and-louder school of Django Reinhardt wannabes, and his Continental style - and his breathing, well-constructed solos - find that elegance, not to mention swing, that so many miss.