At least geographically speaking, you'd kind of expect a top-flight Mexican jazz ensemble to come up with a fusion of US jazz and latin rhythms – and this Mexico-only release from 1976 doesn't disappoint. ‘La nina de los ojos verdes’ is a dreamy jazz waltz; ‘Marias’ is a slinky bossa that's as sweet and summery as melted ice cream running down your chin; and ‘Tema Blue Note’ is tough hard-bop with a rather prescient 1980s feel in its synthesized keyboard textures. In fact, the no-nonsense swing and bullish horn solos on pieces like ‘Igor’ prefigure the neo-con revisionist jazz that became fashionable in the US and Europe during the following decade. But it's tracks like ‘Kamazotz’ that are most persuasive here: gritty jazz funk grooves with killer Fender Rhodes action from Eugenio Toussaint, a talented player who later moved to LA and worked with trumpeter Herb Alpert.