It's sometimes dispiriting, it must be admitted, to be at close quarters with a couple of musicians who have such extraordinary facility for their instruments; nobody should have quite such casual mastery of a guitar fingerboard, surely. But then, both John Etheridge and Pete Oxley have been engaged in their trade for a long time.

Etheridge has such names as Gong, Soft Machine and Stephane Grappelli in his heritage, as well as his own bands in more recent times; Oxley is a major player in the Oxford jazz scene, having founded 'The Spin' as a jazz venue at the turn of the century, and having collaborated with a string of other fine musicians in jazz, blues and rock.

Both of them evince tremendous enjoyment at being on stage, and in connecting with each other and with an audience. The Bookshop was a very intimate venue - by some manner of means Dennis the proprietor had managed to prise an audience of around thirty into the small space - and this fact worked to the advantage of the guitarists, with a flow of banter and stories accompanying the tunes from many sources and inspirations - Abdullah Ibrahim, Miles Davis etc as well as the musicians' own catalogues - every one of which was morphed and reshaped with extraordinary improvisatory skill, from jazz to blues and back again, or from a standard into new creation.

The sheer delight in their being there, and the empathic creativity of two excellent musicians, was evident on both faces, and reflected by a rapt and engaged audience, in a venue where there's always something new and exciting going on.

Perhaps more people should have been able to share the evening - but then, it wouldn't have been quite the same.