This 1978 album, unavailable for many years, makes its return on CD and digital. Probably more than any other non-Latin musician, Cal Tjader helped to popularize the fusion of Latin and jazz tempos. In 1978 he recorded these 6 tracks at the infamous Filmways Wally Heider recording studios in Hollywood, California. Joining him in session was an all-star band – Gary Foster and Kurt McGettrick on saxophones, Robb Fisher on bass, with Latin legends Ponco Sanchez on congas and Willie Bobo on timbales. Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr., the master of Latin rhythms, was born to Swedish parents in St. Louis in 1925. First attracting attention as part of the Lionel Hampton band, Cal played and recorded with several of Dave Brubeck's groups, and led his own for a brief period - before joining George Shearing in 1952. It was during the Shearing period that Cal developed what was to become a lifelong love affair with Latin music. In 1954, Cal reformed his band and began a highly successful touring and recording career that resulted in over fifty albums and hundreds of concerts. The original album notes explain that the major goal of this recording was to retain the essential live flavour of the music and performers – with close-miking techniques discarded in favour of four room microphones, employed to capture the collective energy and sound of eleven musicians together. The sound of the group, therefore, remains authentically Latin, undiminished in explosive force. This album is characterized by its searing brass and exciting percussions – propelled by insistent and energized Latin rhythms interplaying with jazz flavours.