Falling in between the pop and fusion cracks is the tight, four-piece outfit Uncle Festive, featuring Ron Pedley on keys, John Pondel on guitar, Marc Levine on bass, and Bud Harner tackling the skins. While this collection features a few touches of the musical whimsy for which the band was known, they lean towards serious, introspective jazz with mainstream tinges more than ever before. A casual listener would be hard pressed to see a similarity between this disc and UF's frisky Say Uncle from 1987. The playing (particularly the tradition steeped acoustic piano work of Pedley) is first rate but the light infectious melodies which pervaded their previous projects are sorely missed. This outfit disbanded, but years later Pedley and Pondel reformed as the blues-fusion band Kombo.