By 1991, the release had sold 1,000,000 copies in America alone; it would prove to be the band's most commercially successful album and one of the best sellers in the Columbia jazz catalog.

The lineup for the album consisted of Weather Report founders Joe Zawinul (keyboards, synthesizers) and Wayne Shorter (saxophone), alongside Jaco Pastorius (bass), Alex Acuña (drums), and Manolo Badrena (percussion).

"Rumba Mamá", a percussion and vocal feature for Manolo Badrena and Alex Acuña, was recorded live at a summer 1976 concert in Montreux, Switzerland, which was also the subject of a DVD released in 2007.

[1] Dan Oppenheimer said in a June 1977 review for Rolling Stone that he felt the band had moved away from their earlier music, losing a lot of the space, melodies and airy feel that set them apart from other jazz-rock bands, but gaining a new bassist who "has been instrumental in developing their busier, talkative style", and that while their music previously "went up and up only, becoming more ethereal as it went, the new bottom makes all the difference in the world".

[4] Richard Ginell commented in a retrospective review for AllMusic that it was released "just as the jazz-rock movement began to run out of steam"; however, he felt that "this landmark album proved that there was plenty of creative life left in the idiom.