Rodrigo Bonelli shows himself to be a triple threat here as he leads a septet (with guests) here with a fresh and young crew. Bonelli wrote all of the material, mostly in the finger tapping bop-cum-Mingus genre, and his arrangements have a clever mix of swing and sophistication. He uses the thick shaving crème lather of the horn section (Lena Hovanesian/as, Joe Wagner/ts, Dave Banker/tb and Carou Johnson/tp) to create some hip harmonies, with each song mixing up who gets the front of the pack. A slinky “Starla” includes some rich piano by guest Don Friedman while Lena Hoanesian’s alto glides through the horn section. The regular rhythm team of Bonelli with Trevor Brown/b and Michael Verselli create some sparks on the latin “Perpetual Search” (with a nice solo by Johnson) and show soft hands on the relaxed “Ballad For Laura.” Wagner displays a dark and fiery tone during the finger snapper “Bermuda Triangle” while the percussion discussion gets kinetic on “El Torero.” All throughout, Bonelli rides the whip but never snaps too hard on these mustangs; he makes them gallop, canter or trot at just the right pace. Impressive workout.