CD REVIEWS

HIPHOP. Charlie Hunter Trio - self-titled (Mammoth): Hunter, once. a member of the now-defunct San Francisco rap group Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, leads a guitar-saxophone-drum trio through new West Coast Cool territory. Armed with jazzy improvisations and funk rhythms, the trio sounds more like a quartet, thanks to Hunter's seven-string guitar, which allows him to play bass lines while strumming chords. The instrumentalists cover everything from the blues to swing to Charles Mingus. The global track, ``Dance of the Jazz Fascists,'' a Latin-flavored number that adds a trumpeter and two percussionists, basks in a syncopated passion.