If anything can trigger a wave of nostalgia then it is the reinstatement of the Swahili names of Herbie Hancock’s iconic Mwandishi ensemble, or at least those taking part in this date, Jabali Billy Hart and Mganga Eddie Henderson. The H Man, Buster Williams, Julian Priester and Bennie Maupin are missing and it’s a shock to hear some of the band’s early 1970s signature pieces such as ‘Sleeping Giant’ shorn of the additional heft and timbral beauty of the trombone and reeds. Yet part of the interest, and achievement, of this session is precisely the point it makes about the magic of the original music, namely that it had an unbreakable creative core that would more than withstand the downscaling of the sextet to a quartet. Gluck displays an assured touch on the piano, Henderson’s brass still has a flinty edge and drummer Hart remains a master of both power and control. In any case their cohesion and focus highlight Mwandishi as an exponent of superior ambient music as well as jazz. An extra twist is that this new music is largely acoustic rather than electro­ acoustic and the richness of the textures, especially Sullivan’s swooning double bass, is such that the music doesn’t feel at all flimsy. Working with predominantly sombre arrangements, the band makes a fair fist of invoking the ‘infinite spirit’ of the source material, but wisely steer it to another place.