Rick Frank - Yellow Mountain

Rick Frank is the able drummer, joined on

Yellow Mountain
Le Tango
Island of Introspection
Hymn to Kalopi
Minor Blues
Mr. Z
Monk Funk
NuBop
SpaceJunk
You and the Night and the Music

by

Mark Snyder - bass
Brade Hatfield - piano, keys
Bruce Abbott - sax
Jim Robitaille - guitar
Oscar Stagnaro - bass
Paulo Stagnaro - percussion
Brad Hatfield - piano

and together they blend an instrumental jazz album that rocks and rolls and mellows. One of the best tracks is the 5-minute Hymn to Kalopi, a brilliant mood of softness written by Snyder. Bleeds very well into Minor Blues, though doesn't catch as much magic, but all in all, this is a lovely one-unit cool jazz album that puts its songs before the solos (for a change), and I for one am glad to hear such compositional shift again.