Chick Corea, Christian McBride and Brian Blade Complete a Trilogy
Photo Credit: Jordin Jaz Pinkus, Courtesy of Chick Corea Productions
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On Feb. 26, 2020, in Toulouse, France, Chick Corea, Christian McBride and Brian Blade kicked off what was to be a 21-date European tour. This was the triumphant return of the Trilogy band, which had first come together a decade earlier, garnering immediate acclaim.
In anticipation of the trio’s debut performances in 2010, Corea stated, “I’m looking forward to this. We’ve been incubating this idea for a couple years… it came together in my mind when we played in the Five Peace Band.” (That celebrated group also featured Corea’s longtime friend and former Miles Davis bandmate John McLaughlin, along with fellow Davis alum Kenny Garrett.)
Initially billed as the Chick Corea Trio, the acoustic group released 2013’s Trilogy, a three CD live set that won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, while Corea received Best Improvised Jazz Solo for a version of “Fingerprints” that showcased his piano mystery.
While the three musicians continued to express their mutual adoration, they also remained in demand and active with other projects. Corea’s artistry and imagination led the NEA Jazz Master into numerous creative settings as a solo artist, educator and accompanist. Bassist McBride balanced his roles as bandleader, radio host and artistic director for the Newport Jazz Festival. Drummer Blade gigged regularly as a member of Wayne Shorter’s collective as well as his own Fellowship.
Still, they made a point to carve out time for trio dates, and their second release, another live offering, was also named Best Jazz Instrumental Album, while Corea took home a Best Improvised Jazz Solo Grammy for “All Blues.”
One modification with Trilogy 2 was that rather than being billed as the Chick Corea Trio, all three musicians were listed individually. At that time, McBride opined in response, “I could say something like ‘we’ won this Grammy, and considering this album was officially released as a cooperative and not a ‘Chick Corea Trio’ album, using ‘we’ would technically be correct. But the real truth is what Brian Blade and I ‘won’ was the opportunity to play with Chick Corea in this trio for over 10 years. Chick tried so hard to convince me and Brian that this was not the ‘Chick Corea Trio,’ but a cooperative group of equals. Brian and I will forever love him for that, but we knew better. He was too much of a giant to us. A friend, but still a giant.”
That elevated interpersonal and musical connection endured. As McBride writes in the liners to the new double album, Trilogy 3, drawn from their 2020 Europe performances, “The tour started as it always did—exhilarating, with great times on stage and off.”
In looking back, the bassist remembers hearing of COVID prior to the European run and thinking, “The force field of camaraderie and music would surely protect us from any sort of virus. That trio had become, if I may use a contemporary catch-phrase, a safe space. It felt like when Chick, Brian and me were together, all was right with the world. The centerpiece of our tour that we were looking forward to was Budapest, where Chick had been commissioned to compose a new piano concerto. Anytime Chick composed new music, it was always a thrill.”
Unfortunately, the premiere of that concerto, which the trio had been rehearsing, never occurred. Following the ninth date of the tour, at Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional on March 8, they learned of a new U.S. policy mandating that any Americans still outside the country on March 15 be denied reentry for the foreseeable future.
McBride recalls, “And with that, the remainder of our tour was officially canceled. A sad and distant new way of life had begun.”
These words are all the more poignant, as this ended up being the final, abbreviated tour by Corea, who passed away in February 2021 at age 79.
As Blade reflects in his Trilogy 3 essay, “I miss Chick very much, but his music and love for us is still speaking into my life and I am forever thankful for him and all that he shared with us.”
The new release not only highlights the trio, but also illustrates the sweep and range of Corea’s musical explorations.
Trilogy 3 offers a spirited take on Corea’s tune “Windows,” which was first recorded in 1966 and has since become a jazz standard. “It was a regular part of our repertoire,” McBride observes. “Chick, of course, being the composer of that great song, it was always a thrill to play that with him. Just like it was a thrill to play something like ‘Spain’ or ‘500 Miles High.’ More often than not, it would be our opening song and I’d be like, ‘Man, this feels great.’”
The release also features compositions by Thelonious Monk (“Ask Me Now,” “Trinkle Tinkle”) and Bud Powell (“Tempus Fugit”), two fellow keyboard players of deep significance to Corea. Indeed, when McBride first took to the road with Corea in 1996, it was for a series of dates honoring Powell.
“Chick is someone who wanted to remind people that, in terms of bebop language and the innovators who made that music what it was, sometimes Bud Powell’s story gets lost in the narrative of Monk,” McBride explains. “I think the reason we did that Remembering Bud Powell tour in the first place is that Chick wanted to remind people that Bud Powell is just as much of an innovator—and created just as much language, particularly in the realm of composition—as Thelonious Monk.”
McBride then shares his thoughts on the sonata by 18th-century Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti that also appears on Trilogy 3. “To some people, it might be strange that Chick would like Scarlatti, Bartók, Samuel Barber or any sort of classical composer,” the bassist says. “But if you look at Chick Corea’s career, classical music has been a part of his world for his entire life. He studied classical piano at Juilliard and has been a fierce student of the works of Scarlatti, Rachmaninoff and Bartók. He did a two-piano concert of Mozart with Keith Jarrett. Looking at the career of Chick, Brian or me, you’ll find all kinds of stuff that doesn’t have much to do with jazz, but has much to do with the evolution of artistry in terms of who we listen to, and how we’re able to funnel that into jazz expression.”
Given that the first two Trilogy albums received Grammys, a three-peat seems feasible. When asked about this possibility, McBride offers, “I don’t want to speak for Brian, but we’ve already won two Grammys, and most important, we had the opportunity to play with Chick Corea. We don’t need anything tangible to remind us of how special it was. It always felt wonderful and natural. When I’d hear him play the piano, I’d be reminded that his sound has been a part of my world for as long as I’ve been alive. Playing with Chick was something I never got over.”
