Peter Erskine’s early big-band apprenticeships with Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson led in 1978 to joining Weather Report—one of the iconic lineups of the fusion era, with Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, and Joe Zawinul. Erskine was also vital to Steps Ahead, Marc Johnson’s Bass Desires, Kenny Wheeler’s quintet, Joni Mitchell’s Mingus, and a host of other musical situations. His work as a leader carries equal weight, however, starting with this gem of a 1982 debut, a tight 41 minutes of across-the-board excellence from Michael and Randy Brecker, Kenny Kirkland (lots of Kenny Kirkland), Don Grolnick, Bob Mintzer, Steps Ahead vibraphone master Mike Mainieri, bassist Eddie Gomez, and percussionist/Stone Alliance co-leader Don Alias. More than an assortment of stars, this is a band, and Erskine’s band at that, attentive to the details of his compelling compositions “Leroy Street,” “All’s Well That Ends,” and “Coyote Blues.” Kirkland’s piano solos on these tunes, and a Latin-tinged arrangement of Wayne Shorter’s “E.S.P.,” sparkle with all the radical promise of a player who would soon make history as part of Wynton Marsalis’ Black Codes quintet. There’s also a brief drum solo interlude, “In Statu Nascendi,” a harmonically crunchy waltz by Mintzer called “Change of Mind,” and a spirited take on the Kurt Weill standard “My Ship” with Randy Brecker on transcendent flugelhorn. Mintzer takes most of the tenor solos, with the exception of “All’s Well That Ends,” a Michael Brecker vehicle with tasty instrumentation (Grolnick’s Rhodes, Mintzer’s bass clarinet, Erskine’s OB-X synth, Alias’ batá drums). Erskine is not a high-impact player on the order of, say, Tony Williams, though he’s technically brilliant, calibrating his considerable chops to suit every environment. Peter Erskine may have been a zesty full-band debut, but the drummer took a more contemplative turn in the ’90s, making gorgeous trio recordings for ECM with pianist John Taylor and bassist Palle Danielsson before taking up residence on his own Fuzzy Music imprint.