At the risk of irreverence, these could be two of the best albums that Herbie Hancock never quite made. Cut in the wake of the pianist’s Headhunters album, they effectively showcase how rich a springboard that 1973 landmark was for a substantial amount of recordings intent on building bridges between jazz, soul and funk. Furthermore, they make the point that Maupin was much more than a trusty collaborator to the Herbman and Miles Davis, prior to that. As well as playing pippingly hot tenor and soprano sax, his bass clarinet stylings were outstanding and his compositions, epitomised by ‘A Promise Kept’, ‘Water Torture’, and the brilliant ‘It Remains To Be Seen’, of a consistently high standard. What they show, above all else, is that there was a magical time some three decades ago when improvising musicians allowed the spirit of Stevie Wonder and James Brown as well as that of John Coltrane and Yusef Lateef to coalesce and permeate their work without either one of these pathfinders compromising the others. The result was sophisticated groove music: soulful jazz that advanced the soul jazz of the 1960s. Of the able personnel Maupin deploys, special mention should be made of pianist-keyboardist Onaje Allen Gumbs, who arranges and plays excellently on both of the sets.