Chick Corea, Christian McBride and Brian Blade: Triology 3

The gift that graciously and selflessly keeps on giving, Chick Corea, Christian McBride and Brian Blade, known far and wide by both young and old as Trilogy, comes to life once more on Triology 3.

Cut short by that global pandemic the world still cannot shake, these gloriously effusive live performances are gathered from the trio's final tour (February-March 2020), precisely a year before the pianist's death in February 2021 from a rare cancer. He was 79.

Bittersweet as that may sound, there are not (as there rarely were) any dark moments on Trilogy 3. From the charged jumpstart of "Humpty Dumpty"—its performance here quite possibly the tune's most fluid and bopping rendition since its 1978 debut on The Mad Hatter (Polydor)—Corea, McBride, and Blade are instantly inspired. McBride is effervescent. Blade rolls the tide. It is pure energy and lyric. Pure intuition and humble style. Corea takes the lead, stately, joyfully on "Windows," a burnished waltz from the pianist's mid-sixties songbook. He then commences to frolic amid Blade and McBride's masterfully breezy rhythmic dance. 

That easy breezy groove begets the first of two jaunty Thelonious Monk classics, the snap happy "Ask Me Now" (Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 2 (Blue Note, 1952)) and the irresistible hurdles of "Trinkle Tinkle" (Thelonious Monk Trio (Impulse, 1954). Each performance is taken with the trio's seasoned aplomb and vigor. Sandwiched between Monk, Cole Porter's delightfully sassy "You'd Be So Easy To Love" oozes from these guys with an undeniable fervor.

Ever a Corea favorite, the trio imprints Domenico Scarlatti's "Sonata In D Minor" with a poppy bop fervor that compliments not only the 18th-century Italian composer but also the trio's nuanced genius with all musical styles no matter how modern or antiquated. First appearing on Chinese Butterfly (Stretch, 2017), the three have a field day with "Spanish Song" one of the pianist's more textured and playful late-period compositions. Bud Powell's bop masterpiece "Tempus Fugit" closes out Trilogy 3 on a high only these three can attain and sustain.