Pianist Ted Kooshian swings hard and joyfully with a core mainstream team of John Bailey/tp=fh, Jeff Lederer/ts, Dick Sarpola/b and Greg Joseph/dr. The tenor/trumpet from line is right from the Blue Note School of hard bop, with Bailey’s warm horn gliding over the tide of the title tune, while his flugelhorn is fluffy on the autumnal “Somewhere”. Lederer has big and beefy tone, having a hoot of a time around Kooshian’s clever chords on the kinetically Monkish “Sparkplug-She Came To Play” and getting down over the military riff laid down by Joseph on “Schiermonnikoog”. Kooshian shows rich ideas on the pen, plugging in on a funkified Bullitt-themed “McQueen” and going to where no man has gone before in an intergalactic “Shatner”, while the rhythm team takes a Caribbean cruise on “Desert Island Tracks”. Rich textures are proved by a string section and Jim Mola’s voice on a lovely “Hymn For Her”, with other delicate ideas hovering on “Space Train”. A modern jazz messenger.