Al Oliveira died on Feb. 19, 2001, but the mutual respect, challenge and magic he and Jack found in one another comes alive again in this recording. Dave Vickery's no-frills living-room studio in Mansfield was where they went, in the late 80s, during the peak of their 18 years of collaboration, to record these cuts. Most were done on one take. Dave's piano was a pleasure for Jack to play, and, once he got past the notion that they needed to be separated by sound baffles... or that somehow the banging of Jack's left foot could be curtailed... or that Al and Jack could actually play this stuff without a fair amount of Jack Daniel's being spilled on his living room rug ... well, you can hear the results. It's raw, it's real and it's right and righteous. It's who they were, what they played, and why, after the fistfights in the snow, they loved and respected one another so much. They simply flat-out played their best for each other.