The Cookers go from strength to strength. The Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart is their fifth and best. There is now an unmistakably original group sound – a thick, powerful, passionate sound, like a big band. Then the solos start, with all the fiery intensity of the hardest-hitting five-piece post-bop bands. David Weiss is the youngest member and it's really his enthusiasm and genuine love of his often overlooked colleagues’ personal contributions to jazz during their lifetimes that has greatly helped the band's continuing success. He's responsible for five of the extraordinary arrangements on the album, with Billy Harper scoring his own three compositions – the blazing, muscular title tune, the one which consistently surprises (‘If One Could Only See’) and the deeply spiritual closer, the nearly 13-minute ‘Thy Will Be Done’. New Orleans altoist Donald Harrison has joined The Cookers since their previous record, his sound and solos add to the breadth and depth of the horns. Every member makes such striking statements it seems unfair to pick out anyone in particular, but Eddie Henderson plays as well as this writer has ever heard him, particularly on Cecil McBee's beautiful ‘Third Phase’ (an absolutely superb Weiss arrangement) and Harper's ‘Could Only See’. But every track and every solo by every member makes this a very strong contender for my record of the year. It's got the tradition, the now and the future. Very serious music.