With my self-professed soft spot for jazz fusion and a special love for the Mahavishnu Orchestra's first album, this was a natural acquisition. The first album was damn hard to top, so I'm not going to go out on a limb and say this one is better, because it isn't. It falls into the trap (albeit not a really serious one) of attempting to make lightning strike the same spot twice, and the second bolt maybe hit a couple yards (meters?) to the left. The good tracks here largely owe their attractiveness to the first album's sound, and the other tracks, typically shorter and more experimental, don't excite nearly as much.
Attempts at a third album fell apart and were ultimately released as The Lost Trident Sessions many years later. The original lineup scattered into the wide world of fusion, making this probably the second more core fusion group after Miles Davis's Bitches Brew mega-group. Drummer Billy Cobham went solo, and his first album notably features future Deep Purple guitarist Tommy Bolin. Jan Hammer, the keyboard fusionista, hooked up with John Abercrombie for his debut album after a joint project with violinist Jerry Goodman. Goodman would later appear with the (Dixie) Dregs, where I saw him performing about ten years ago down in San Juan Capistrano. Bassist Rick Laird ultimately left the music business and is better known for his photography.
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