There are two immediate surprises in store for those discovering Tyler Kinchen and the Right Pieces, a septet that practices sort of the jazzy big-band R&B that’s fast becoming a regional trend. For one thing, they’re damn urban for a group that hails from Ponchatoula, not at all that far up the road from where Shelby the Swamp Man does his thing. The more important surprise is how sexy their music can be, largely due to the impressively flexible vocal talents of Tyler himself—lyrically, his seduction rap isn’t anything you haven’t heard, but his delivery makes him the MVP of a group with more potential soloists than most bands have members.

Actually, the Pieces don’t stretch out a lot on this six-song debut EP—as befits the title, these songs are heavily spiced with Latin rhythms, and thus spend most of their time working up a hip-rolling groove punctuated with bursts of brass. Besides, extended solos would only crowd the wonder of Kinchen’s ever-so-slightly gruff croon, half-scatting and half-swooping, potent enough to redeem a sentiment like “Woman be crazy, but I be crazy about woman.” Pickup lines always look silly on paper.