With his predilection for the piano trio as a central form of expression, Michel Petrucciani was out of step with the mid-eighties.

He was a driven man, playing in his most active period more than one hundred concerts a year, with the feeling deep inside him that, given his illness, he had less time available than other people, a feeling which he repeatedly mentioned in talks with friends and journalists. Petrucciani wanted to condense his music, releasing energy under tension in an awaited discharge. The bassist Gary Peacock and the drummer Roy Haynes were the perfect partners. One had been socialized in post bop, sowed his wild oats in Free-Time and later, as a partner of Bill Evans, Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett among others, perfected his trio playing. The other had personally experienced the birth of bebop and was one of the busiest jazz luminaries in his field.'