This is John Etheridge's annual week at Dean Street, one he always enjoys with a little help from friends in different jazz places. Last night, the difficult one, found him working alone. Apart, that is, from his five guitars, a nifty sampling pedalboard and a warm-up set by Eva Katzler, a singer-pianist with a chart-friendly, lite-jazz sound.

Her languid, countrystyle tunes and catch-in-the-throat vocals come from the Norah Jones-Sonya Kitchell bandwagon. Perhaps there's room for one more inside.

After a bass-lined blues medley Etheridge voyaged from Luis Bonfa's bossa Gentle Rain to Guitar Makossa from Cameroon and Lullaby of Birdland from New York, showing an equal solo grasp of each style. We heard his bass-enhanced Telecaster (Mean to Me, Stormy Weather) and Django Reinhardt Maccaferri copy (Limehouse Blues, China Boy, Nuages) before he repeatedly sampled a Hendrix-like Strat to produce a multi-layered one-man-band finish.

At encore time, he took two requests, Django (by John Lewis) and Love Me Tender, combining chord sequences with expertise. Tennessee Waltz, another unlikely piece of Americana, earlier yielded a particularly beautiful solo. Etheridge is a fine musician who should let himself play to the gallery more. Instead of milking a final chord, he gives it a brusque stab that kills the applause. Similarly his patter uses so much self-deprecation that listeners become uncomfortable.

They'd have loved to applaud his music more warmly and chuckle more easily at his quips, but he didn't give them a chance.

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