Manteca

Around 1979 the funky jazz ensemble Manteca assembled in Canada. Its expansive roster featured percussionists and drummers Charlie Cooley and Matt Zimbel, trumpet players Rick Tait and Steve McDade, percussionist and banjo picker Art Avalos, bassist Henry Heillig, saxophonists John Johnson and Phil Dwyer, and keyboardist Gordon Sheard.

The group captured its first album, Fusion, in 1981. Ready Records then issued the self-titled follow-up the next year. Over the subsequent nearly two decades Manteca kept issuing recordings, among them Strength in Numbers in 1984, No Heroes in 1986, Fire Me Up in 1988, Later Is Now in 1992, and No Net in 1996.