Jazz mandolin is not a new idea. Tiny Moore was playing jazz licks on the short, eight-string instrument in Bob Wills' Texas Playboys back in the '40s; David Grisman and such disciples as Mike Marshall, Andy Statman and Paul Glasse have been swinging and improvising on the mandolin since the '70s. More recently, Jamie Marshall formed the Jazz Mandolin Project as a vehicle for his own approach to the instrument. On the debut album, "The Jazz Mandolin Project," the mostly acoustic trio often seems to be following in Grisman's footsteps, but at times the group veers off into a more abstract mode that has less to do with the swing and blues of jazz and more with the abstract improvisation of jam-rock. --Geoffrey Himes