The harmonica has never been anywhere as successful in jazz as it has been in the blues. The significant exception is Toots Thielemans, but he has little competition. The most famous harmonica player, Larry Adler, dabbled in jazz, which was secondary to his classical and popular music careers. More recently, Howard Levy has shown up on several albums in a supporting role, and has a couple of albums out under his own name. Australian Christian Marsh, with his album The Sketch, adds to the small list of jazz harp players. Playing both the diatonic and chromatic (double-reed) instruments, Marsh shuffles between smooth jazz, pop/rock, and new age styles on a play list of music by such diverse composers as Sting, Peter Gabriel, and legendary Argentinian accordionist Astor Piazzolla. The selections have a fairly simple harmonic structure and thus fit the capabilities of the instrument perfectly. On tunes such as "Shadows" and "Marella," Marsh lays down the melody with the keyboards, bass track, or other electronically based instrument acting as rhythm section. The smoothness of the jazz is also enhanced on the latter track by a string quartet. The Sting composition "Be Still My Beating Heart" is one of the more inventive on the play list, and features some excellent solo guitar by Terry Murray. On "Digging in the Dirt," Marsh lays down some funk, again with Murray helping out. But, for the most part, the music -- while pleasurable to listen to as background -- is quite nondescript and does little to advance the cause of the harmonica as a jazz instrument. ~ Dave Nathan