For Phil Woods, this album represents, as he puts it, "coming back to the great American songbook. I"ve been training for it my whole life. Many of my other albums have focused on obscure pieces by Duke Ellington and Oliver Nelson, my originals; and blowing sessions. But I"ve never before done a recording just of songs in settings like these."As a connoisseur of the American songbook, Phil pays affectionate attention to the verses, as you"ll hear in these arrangements. Each of the players has ample space for soloing, but there is also a continual interplay between them that is the essence of jazz ensemble democracy. What makes this combo rare in jazz history is the celebratory fact that Phil, Bill Goodwin and Steve Gilmore have been together for some 29 years!