I'll hazard a couple guesses:
Being released on MPS probably didn't help... at least in the U.S., where it was issued by PAUSA, a relatively small-time outfit.
Also, wasn't this sort of musical style beginning to lose steam by the beginning of the 80s? I think the conservative, "Let's turn the clock back to the mid-60s" thing was already ascendant. So funky music -- unless it was the "original" Horace Silver-type funk -- was becoming passe (in some circles). So, ironically, it was going out of style because it wasn't old enough.
EDIT: Noodling on this a bit further. I love the idea that, with passing of time, what was hip or popular (or the opposite) at any given time can be re-visited and re-evaluated without the baggage that may have gone with it at the time of its release. Time can provide a sort of leveling effect; in other words, the music can be recontextualized with the passing of time, with different times yielding different meanings. So music that may have been ignored can be lifted up, and music that was lionized may prove less durable than expected. At the very least, things get shifted around, meaning-wise; so, if the art is good enough -- and so much of jazz is -- it's continually, kaleidoscopically becoming something new and vital.
I hope that makes sense. 😉