"I not only wanted to play in a more percussive setting this time out, but I also wanted to dig into new realms of tonality and timbre," says the 30-year-old Hunter, who lays the bass line foundation on his guitar while simultaneously taking the improvisational lead. "Don't get me wrong. I love the horns, but I'd been doing that for so long that I wanted to go after something different. Above all I wanted to make a groove album which meant coming up with a strong rhythm section."

Why vibraphone? "I had been listening to a lot of vibes players lately, people like Bobby Hutcherson, Milt Jackson and especially Steve Nelson who sounds great on Dave Holland's latest album," Hunter explains. "I was excited by the fresh tonal possibilities as well as the versatility of the instrument and how it would blend in with the rest of the rhythm section." As for his choice of Harris, who makes his solo debut on Blue Note later this year, Hunter says, "The people at Blue Note had been hipping me to him. They sent me a tape of his music and Stefon was killing. I knew I had to get his sound and intensity of playing. He was so great to work with. Stefon's such an open-minded and cool dude. Plus, he's got a great attitude. He gives 100% to the music."

Why percussion? "To add extra funkification to the vibe," says Hunter, who sought out Santos for his Afro-Cuban rhythmic expertise. In addition to leading his own bands, including the sizzling Machete Ensemble, Santos lectures nationally on subjects related to Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean music. With Santos on board keeping the polyrhythms flowing alongside Amendola, the most sought-after young drummer in the Bay Area, The Return of the Candyman cooks. "This is what I had in mind when I first started thinking about this album," Hunter says. "I'm really pleased with the results. We recorded a great record for hip-hop DJs to sample."

A seminal figure on the Bay Area's nu-jazz scene in the early '90s, Hunter burst onto the national jazz circuit in 1993 with his Charlie Hunter Trio CD, released by Prawn Song/Mammoth Records. Soon after, Hunter was signed to Blue Note where he has recorded three superb albums, Bing, Bing Bing!, Ready...Set...Shango and last year's Natty Dread cover series disc, all piloted by noted Berkeley producer Lee Townsend, who was also at the helm for the latest release. Hunter, who recently uprooted himself from his Berkeley homebase to settle into new digs in Brooklyn, also led T.J. Kirk, a three-guitar (and one drummer) group that mixed-and-matched the music of Thelonious Monk, James Brown and Rahsaan Roland Kirk into a high-voltage jazz-meets-rock amalgam. Kirk, currently on sabbatical, recorded two albums for Warner Bros./Reprise.

On The Return of the Candyman, Hunter delivers several short pieces, ranging from half a minute to two minutes in length, that are interspersed among longer, improvisation-packed tunes. All are Hunter compositions, with the exception of "Electric Relaxation," a Ronnie Foster number that a Tribe Called Qwest sampled. "I wanted to write pieces that were meant to serve as interludes," Hunter explains. "Again, I wanted to do something different, to make these little band statements that fade out. I think of them as these tiny organic samples."

The extended tracks feature Hunter and Harris in the solo spotlight. The smooth-toned, funky "Enter the Dragon" with its odd time signature in the opening was inspired by the late martial arts master Bruce Lee while the catchy "Pound for Pound" comes from Hunter's appreciation of soul-pop singer Curtis Mayfield's music. "This tune may not sound like Curtis, but I think of him whenever we play it." One of the two ballads of the collection, "People," with Amendola applying a tender rhythmic touch with brushes and Harris offering beautiful yet haunting vibes reflections, is an older Hunter original which his quartet used to play as a hardcore blues shuffle. "I changed it around because I felt like we needed at least one real slow tune for the album. I'm really happy with how it came out." The other slowed-down number "Huggy Bear" is, in Hunter's words, "a shuffle ballad" that he and his touring bands have been performing in recent years.

"Shake It," like its name suggests, is a dance-friendly tune that features Santos' flame on the congas. "It's a little Latin boogaloo that we baked up," Hunter says, then notes that once again they decided to go the unconventional route. "We put John's conga solo up front and ended with the head rather than starting with it." Another kick-up-your-heels tune is "Turn Me Loose," which the leader describes as "straight funkification." "We change the key toward the end so that Stefon and I have a different groove to solo over."

"Dope-A-Licious" is an upbeat tune that all four members of the band wrote together in rehearsals for the recording, and the title track, Hunter explains, "is a fun little New Orleans-type ditty. We hit it and grooved."  Plus, Hunter and Pound For Pound do a shake-and-bake version of Steve Miller's multi-platinum hit single, "Fly Like an Eagle." "We had been playing this live as a joke, but when Lee heard it he suggested we record it. No matter how goofy-assed a song it is, we had fun doing it." The CD ends with a quicky spin through Harris' song "Of Things to Come." "That's a great little sample number," Hunter says. "Any hip hop DJ who doesn't sample this is a fool."

Why call the album The Return of the Candyman? Hunter smiles and wisecracks, "Because we wanted to have a creepy picture of a clown on the cover." Sure enough, the clown artwork is eerily arresting. "It's so freaky. It's supposed to look like one of those black velvet paintings. Plus, I can't think of another jazz group that would ever put out an album with a cover like this." As for the name of his new group, Hunter grins again. "Catchy, isn't it? I just like how it sounds. I got the idea watching the boxer Roy Jones, Jr. being interviewed on a talk show. He was saying that as a middleweight or light heavyweight boxer, he didn't make a whole lot of money, but pound for pound he claimed he was the best fighter in the land."  The same can be said for Hunter and his new crew. Beat for beat Pound For Pound is the best jazz groove band in the land.