Once Columbia lost faith in fusion, Khan had to change his tune, literally. First he changed guitar, from Tele to acoustic then classic ES-335; and along the way he changed to a hybrid pickand-fingers technique. Crossings most satisfyingly ties up these elements, and for added value we have Michael Brecker, his sax subtly twinning with Khan's lines on ‘Descarga Khanalonious’ or all storms on the swinging ‘While My Lady Sleeps’. Crossings reflects a loving respect for contemporary composers like Tony Williams (a perky ‘Pee Wee’), Wayne Shorter, (a gorgeous ‘Capricorn’) and the blues inflections of Lee Morgan's ‘Melancolee’. A latin feel is more obvious on Public Access, with Badrena's vox prevalent and it's brimming with original material giving it a fusion edge absent on the other recordings: it's also pared down to get three LPs on a pair of CDs, and the abbreviated Headline is split frustratingly across the two, which kind of reflects its split personality, part fusion, part reaching out to a cleaner, post-bop edge.