In 1973 Ohio-born tenor sax player Rudolph Johnson and the other members of his quartet were still mining the rich vein of free and spiritual music that had opened up in the 1960s, rather than following their contemporaries on the road that was leading to jazz fusion.

Aptly titled The Second Coming, this sequel to Johnson’s earlier Spring Rain album is an unashamedly nostalgic return to the mood and spirit of Coltrane’s classic period. On ‘The Traveler’ he reaches out and makes contact with the energy he is seeking to emulate, letting go with a flurry of notes that resemble the piping of a snake charmer’s flute, ably supported by Kirk Lightsey, whose energetic piano playing is the perfect free flowing foil to his leader’s expressionistic sax explosions.

The album is ripe with such musical illusion, all of which peaks on the title track, a personalised take on the vibrations that produced A Love Supreme, with Johnson’s spiritual playing being the guiding beacon into more lush and experimental territory. Embellished with a lively drum solo from Doug Sides, Kent Brinkley’s sturdy bass playing and further keyboard action from Lightsey, it is homage and prophesy (for a rekindling of the 1960s fire music movement) rolled into one.