The organisers of the Spin Jazz Club, Pete Oxley and Mark Doffman, have been in the business long enough to avoid clumsy mistakes in their programming. This is born out by the fact that the club was short-listed for the second time in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards this year. Consequently, there is no reason to fear that, because the guest soloist on a particular week is relatively unknown, the evening will not be as enjoyable as with the crowd-puller from the week before. In fact the opposite is more likely to be the case.

Thus when saxophonist Carlos Lopez-Real played a scintillating evening to a rather small audience it was disappointing that more jazz lovers in Oxford did not have faith enough to lever themselves out of their TV chairs. They missed a great evening.

As a member of the F-ire collective in London, Lopez-Real has already proved his worth to his peers. On alto he has a clean tone and crisp phrasing reminiscent of Lee Konitz, a welcome change from saxophone players intent on a big sound and slick speed. Nevertheless, his playing reveals someone who has already found his own voice. On the second number of the evening, Chick Corea's Windows, he was already into a groove and weaving his own personal stories, taking that lean Konitz sound into more complex personal territory. This was playing with far more sophistication than those overworked phrases marked look what I learnt to do in jazz school'. As the evening progressed, Lopez-Real showed the full breadth and depth of his playing. He can produce highly individual and musically mature interpretations of ballads, bossas and blues without ever seeming to fall back on technique or repetition. And these are the signs of a great player.

Throughout the evening, Ric Bolton on guitar gave an object lesson in how to move between sympathetic support to stunning soloist, giving the right colour to his backing and rich variety in his solos. Bolton's own Hell's A'Poppin' provided a rousing end to an exceptional evening, with Carlos Lopez-Real a player brimming with individuality and imagination.