in the early 1980s, copland returned to new york. for a time he returned weekly to washington to continue private teaching and a steady trio engagement, but after a couple of years these regular visits tapered off in favor of more extensive work in new york city. during this period he worked with bob belden, jane ira bloom, joe lovano, herbie mann, james moody (with whom he toured for three years), john scofield, jim snidero, and dave stryker. a busy sideman, he began to appear with his own bands in local clubs, but remained unrecorded as a leader. acting on a tip that the japanese label jazz city was searching for ten american pianists, copland sent an audition tape to guitarist/producer yoshiake masuo. after listening, the producer called copland to decline, saying that the label had already reached agreement with ten pianists. a few weeks later masuo called back to say one pianist had dropped out, and offered copland his first record deal. "my foolish heart", copland's debut disc as leader, was recorded at "the studio" in soho. his trio and quartet gigs and were more frequent, and as word of his trio spread, he began to play regularly at several venues around the united states, first with peacock and drummer bill stewart, and later, when stewart was no longer with the original trio, with billy hart.