by Scott YanowThis excellent session (recorded at Half Moon Bay in 1976 but not released until this 1995 CD) features trumpeter Blue Mitchell with four Northern California musicians: the obscure Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonist Mike Morris, pianist Mark Levine, bassist Kenny Jenkins and drummer Smiley Winters. The repertoire is fresh, consisting of a nearly 17-minute "Pleasure Bent," the warm ballad "Portrait of Jenny," a song called "Sweet Smiley Winters" that is really a "Sweet Georgia Brown" line penned decades earlier by Coleman Hawkins, Levine's "Something Old, Something Blue" and a brief "Blues Theme." Mitchell is heard in prime form throughout the enjoyable straightahead set which contains a few subtle surprises.