snobb The eighties were a dark age for jazz, but even during that time some great albums were released. One of the main rules on how to chose a better album coming from that period of time is just search for a great artists' album, recorded and released in Japan!

Possibly such a recommendation could have its pros and cons (the Japanese jazz market can be conservative and you will often find not much more modern than hard-bop or post-bop released on big labels there), but for the plastic-electronic 80s, good hard-bop or post-bop were both breaths of true jazz!

Herbie Hancock's trio s/t album was recorded in a studio in Tokyo in 1981 and perfectly confirms this rule. An all-star band (with Ron Carter on acoustic bass and Tony Williams on drums) plays high quality hard-bop (on the border with post-bop) here. There are only a very few albums from the early 80s containing such alive and moody acoustic sounds.

Hancock/Carter/Williams trio are quite the veterans on the Japanese scene, their previous recordings were made as far back as 1977 and contain same excellent modern mainstream jazz on them (one album with this material was released in Japan only, another - as Carter / Hancock / Williams "Third Plane" was released in US and Europe as well).

Highly recommended album for fans of acoustic Hancock hard/post-bop, one of his best albums coming from that decade.