Although best-known as one of the stars of the Basie band, Foster was also a fine composer, as ‘Shiny Stockings’ proved, and this classic work is possibly his crowning glory from many points of view. For a start the all-star line-up he assembled produced one of the premier orchestral recordings of the early 1970s, and the meeting of Coltrane's rhythmic lynchpin Elvin Jones and the bass and percussion tyros – Stanley Clarke and Airto (who were energising the music of Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis among others), brought a real cutting edge to the session. For the most part the arrangements build a fantastic bridge between modalism, funk and blues, and the slinky, but gritty grooves are scintillating. Above all, the confrontational political resonance of the title track, in which Dee Dee Bridgewater cries out for change, sounds as relevant today as it did four decades ago.