in 1975, violinist jean-luc ponty and keyboardist gayle moran left the band. stu goldberg was brought in as a replacement for moran. although they were not officially recorded, initially this version of the group still retained norma jean bell, carol shive, phillip hirschi, russell tubbs and steve kindler. after some hasty rehearsals, this line-up toured with jeff beck. after the tour, mclaughlin pared the band down to a quartet of himself, goldberg, walden and armstrong, and then the album was recorded.