Yosuke Yamashita and Mal Waldron knew each other from Waldron's years of touring Japan; in 1985 they would record as a piano duo at the Pit Inn. A Tribute To Mal Waldron comes five years earlier, recorded at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg on 17 and 18 June 1980 and released by Enja the same year.

This is the trio Yamashita formed after the Sakata-Moriyama years: Katsuo Kuninaka on bass, Shota Koyama on drums. Four pieces. Three Waldron compositions, Trane's Soul Eyes, a twelve-minute One-Upmanship, and the short Minoat; and one by Yamashita, Mal Is Back in Town, which runs sixteen minutes and takes up most of side two.

Waldron's tunes are built on repeated, hammered figures, and they suit Yamashita's own percussive attack. What he does with them is closer to his own free trio than to Waldron's brooding pace. Discogs collectors have filed the LP under "especially good sounding records", and the Bauer studio recording by Carlos Albrecht is part of that. Produced by Horst Weber and Matthias Winckelmann.

Japanese CD edition from Solid's Enja Real Jazz Classics series.