In Paul F. Berliner's Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation, pianist Kenny Baron spoke of the ‘science of building a line’, advocating starting a solo simply, so ‘the solo has somewhere in which it can build,’. It may seem a simple aesthetic, but on the opening number of The Perfect Set II, You Don't Know What Love Is, we hear him putting words into practice and only then the profundity of what he is advocating becomes clear; one of jazz's master storytellers, ideas and motifs – such as variations on the first four bars of the Benny Goodman/Peggy Lee 1942 hit ‘Why Don't You Do Right?’, a minor key 12-bar blues – are developed and woven into a broader narrative that is full of intelligence, wit and elegantly restrained melodicism.

His trio, with Ray Drummond and Ben Riley, had come together as Stan Getz's rhythm section, and it was with Getz, on a series of recordings during the last chapter of his life, that Barron emerged as a truly masterful improvisor on albums such as Voyage (1986), Serenity (1987), Anniversary (1987), Yours and Mine (1989), and People ime (1991).

Earlier, he had been co-leader of the group Sphere, dedicated to the music of Thelonious Monk, where he learned to probe the depths of Monk's style without being claimed by his stylistic mannerisms that can easily swallow the identity of an unwary instrumentalist, as countless fashionable ‘Monk Tribute’ albums have demonstrated.

Here, he pays tribute to Monk with his own original called ‘The Only One’, a solo performance of Monk's ‘Shuffle Boil’ and the album highspot, some 14 minutes of Monk's ‘Well You Needn't’ that displays Barron's great talent at its poetic best – he gets inside Monk's compositions but remains his own man. The stars were indeed in perfect alignment over Bradley's on University Place in New York City on 6 April, 1996, since this is indeed a perfect set.