[1][2][3][4] The album is dedicated to the memory of trumpeter, Blue Notes member, and "brother in music" Mongezi Feza, who died at age 30 on December 14, 1975, roughly a week prior to the recording session.

In his liner notes, Keith Beal described the recording as "the spontaneous tribute of four musicians who had assembled in London for the memorial service to their friend," (the members of the group had scattered in the late 1960s) and wrote: "No discussion took place beforehand and nothing was said during the session, save through the music.

"[10] In a JazzTimes tribute to Feza, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum called the album "an incredibly powerful and heartfelt musical farewell to a fallen brother.

"[11] Bill Shoemaker of Point of Departure described the album as the group's "Guernica, a panoramic depiction of their world torn asunder," stating that it "stormed far beyond the parameters of eulogy and Westernized ideals of ritual," with the musicians "veer[ing] between chants and grooves, kwela and free jazz, and spirit-summoning rubato crescendos and existential screams.

Into the mix they toss everything from suggestions of Church of England hymns, kwela dance rhythms, refined, Ellington-reflecting tone poems – heavy on piano chording – and out-and-out primitivist R&B.