Bennie Maupin has been an inventive contributor to iconic records including Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi and Headhunters and Marion Brown’s Afternoon Of A Georgia Faun. His recordings under his own name have been infrequent but his leader debut, is indeed a jewel. “A more selfless album is hard to imagine”, said Down Beat in 1975. “On The Jewel In The Lotus, the sound is supreme, and all the players strive to achieve a thorough blending”. Recorded in New York in 1974, the disc’s personnel is drawn from the circle around Herbie Hancock in the period, but the music has a character all its own.

• 1. Ensenada (08:15)
• 2. Mappo (08:30)
• 3. Excursion (04:52)
• 4. Past Present = Future (01:52)
• 5. The Jewel In the Lotus (10:02)
• 6. Winds of Change (01:30)
• 7. Song For Tracie Dixon Summers (05:19)
• 8. Past is Past (03:57)