is the most recent performance and in many ways the most interesting, with elusive, squiggly reeds, terrific keyboards by Lonnie Liston Smith and delicately propulsive percussion by Mtume and Badal Roy. Only "Go Ahead John" misses, largely because two trumpets are overdubbed, causing some congestion, and because McLaughlin's solo is painfully distorted, as if it were coming through a Sears & Roebuck amp with its fuses blown. But essentially Big Fun is the most consistently appealing, varied and adventurous Miles Davis album since Live/Evil, commands attention as such, and will doubtless give Davis's many imitators something to think about. (RS 163)

BOB PALMER