Thompson's August 1999 engagement at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago was an unexpected gift - the 82-year-old pianist, a mainstay on New York's dynamic 52nd Street scene in the 1940s & '50s, hadn't appeared in Chicago since 1941 when he was a member of Lionel Hampton's first band; on this live recording, his trio contains tenor sax man Eric Schnieder & trumpeter Art Hoyle.