Paula Jeanine American Ghazal says the jacket. Flip to the backside and a line at the bottom reads,'best enjoyed in the evening hours'. You refrain for some strange reason from playing the CD at any other time of the day but evening. Following the casual remark so conscientiously it feels like a statutory warning. Late evening you slip the CD into the CD tray and sit down to the music.

New York based Jazz vocalist and percussionist Paula Jeanine and her partner pianist Richard Bennet are in Bombay on their second trip. The first one culminated in American Ghazal a project that according to Paula, "is still in its initial stages". That, however, is not the impression you get when you listen to the American Ghazal CD that Paula has given you. The lyrics uncomplicated, the orchestration spare. The album a curious confluence of jazz and ghazal takes you into a special realm that feels lit with black light.