Setting aside the issue of genres (jazz, folk, Americana, funk, R&B, country, whatever), the question becomes: on their debut album, Ivy Hall, does the Tennessee-based and curiously named quartet, Kolotov Mocktails, deliver the goods? And the answer has to be yes, they do. This leads to a second question: is what they are doing jazz? And here the answer is less obvious. Certainly, there are elements of jazz in the form of improvisation and rhythmic patterns, but they are sporadic and often overshadowed by what may reasonably be described as a hybrid—jazz of a sort, simply not the sort of jazz that lends itself to clear-cut labeling.

There are moments, as on "Acoustic Alchemy," when the music sounds like something one might encounter at a country hoedown; others, as on "Coming to an Alley Near You" or "The Fuzz," when the vibe is pure two-beat funk; and others still ("Raw Eel Sheets") when violinist