The title says it all. This crack quartet may be known for their fusion associations, but here they play straight-ahead and acoustic, roaring through a set of largely standards, often with a boppish stance. Fittingly the set starts with a typically sonorous intro from Carpenter to ‘Star Eyes’. Within two years the bass man would be dead and another hero was gone. But this is the way to remember him, sinuously underlining the outro to ‘Star Eyes’, rock solid beneath the swaying, slow tempo of ‘From Ton to Tom’ or trading licks with the band as they chase away the ‘Autumn Leaves’. The recording's freshness derives from Kikoski calling up the band for a one-off studio gig with a live audience. With no rehearsal, the pals go for it, friends enjoying each other's company, be it gorgeously on a swoonsome ‘My One And Only Love’, blues drenched on ‘If You Could See Me Now’ or soaring on the boppish flight of fantasy ‘Mr PC’. Buy it, play it. Play it again. It's never the same twice.