Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi sextet, later a septet with the addition of Patrick Gleeson and his Moog synth, put out three albums in all – Mwandishi (1971) and Crossings (1972) for Warner Bros. and Sextant (1973) for Columbia. But that wasn't the end of the story when Hancock abruptly wound up the band (with the exception of Maupin), changed direction and hit the jackpot with his huge jazz-funk hit from 1973, Headhunters and the hit single from it, ‘Chameleon’. The spirit of the Mwandishi band continued, on record at least, with Eddie Henderson's Realization (1973) and Inside Out (1973), both on Capricorn and with essentially the same personnel. It was into this continuum that Bennie Maupin stepped with The Jewel In The Lotus for ECM in 1974. Using the Mwandishi rhythm section of Hancock, Williams and Hart, augmented by an additional drummer (Waits) and percussionist Summers, with Charles Sullivan in Henderson's stead on ‘Mappo’ and ‘Excursion’, Maupin, like Henderson before him, continued to build on the Mwandishi legacy, which even in its own lifetime was acknowledged as being ahead of its time. While Henderson was looser, yet every bit as invigorating as Hancock (indeed, his two albums are lost treasures of the jazz-rock era), Maupin was equally stimulating with floating, meditative open-ended improvisations that were smoothly and seamlessly executed and almost spiritual in intent. Every bit as valuable as Henderson's perspective, The Jewel In The Lotus was ahead of its time and sounds just as exciting and exploratory today.