The recent unearthing of Miles Davis's 1970 Fillmore dates provided a thrilling glimpse of the birth of the gritty funk-jazz-rock that would dominate his work into the mid-70s. It was a sound that sent out powerful ripples, influencing musicians all over the world. Japanese pianist Masabumi Kikuchi recorded with Miles in 1978 (unissued), two years after he convened this stellar band, including several Miles alumni, to work through his own formulation of that sound. ‘Auroral Flare’ begins with sparse, ethno-Oriental twang and pluck before delving into a crawling groove reminiscent of British Miles devotees, Nucleus; the rockish shuffle of ‘Electric Ephemeron’ is a dead-ringer for ‘Right Off’ from Miles’ Jack Johnson; and, throughout, trumpeter Terumasa Hino applies plangent mute and electronic treatment to the horn. Briefly available as a Japanese import CD a decade ago, this is another vital set that deserves to see the light of day.

Vinyl currently selling for $99 at ebay.com