This kind of ‘disco jazz funk’, as it's called in the booklet, would have no doubt served the argument that the spirit of Bird, Diz, Bud et al had been well and truly eclipsed by the garish glare of a mirror ball and the swish of John Travolta's hips by the late-1970s. However, the other reading of history is that Muhammad was reconnecting with the R&B of his formative years in New Orleans, albeit in a sonic context that had significantly altered. What is striking about this record is its stylistic breadth, and while the bouncing bass and wistful female vocals of ‘Could Heaven Ever Be Like This?’ move Muhammad somewhere on to the grittily soulful terrain occupied by the likes of groups such as Slave and Mandrill, he also investigates African-Caribbean-latin rhythms with a great deal of creativity on tracks such as the fantastically invigorating ‘Camby Bolongo’. Not every piece works but the ripe, rotund bass work of Wilbur Bascomb and punchy solos from Michael Brecker and Jeremy Steig make this a bit of a breakbeat bonanza.