Christmas has come early for jazz-funk fans in the shape of this superb reissue of a long-unavailable classic of the genre from Jazz Dispensary, an imprint of Craft Recordings.

Having sprinkled funky fairydust over Donald Byrd and Gary Bartz among others in the early 1970s, ace producing-writing team the Mizell brothers (Larry and Alfonso ‘Fonce’) then turned their attention to Kentucky-born keys wizard Johnny Hammond – at the time mostly noted for his Hammond B3 work – getting him to add synth and Rhodes to his musical palette and producing for him the acclaimed Gambler's Life in 1974.

A year later they followed up with Gears, which was even better, containing some of Hammond's most sparkling electric piano playing and which contained the immortal (and hyper-funky) ‘Shifting Gears’, a longtime favourite with the breaks and beats crowd; as well as the slinky ‘Can't We Smile’ and the much-sampled ‘Los Conquistadores Chocolatés’, with its recitation by Byrd/Bobbi Humphrey associate William Jordan. Gears was a big critical and commercial hit, especially here in the UK, where funksters took it to their hearts. Hugely influential – on the nascent disco movement as well as jazz-funk – the album remains a compelling listen 47 years on.

Beautifully ‘AAA’ remastered by Kevin Gray from the original analogue tapes and packaged in a tip-on sleeve, it sounds, and looks, better than ever. Add it to your Xmas list, funkateers!