"Trilogy" is triple live set,collecting some material, played during 2010-2012 new trio European and Japanese tours.Chosen recordings are covering extremely wide areas what makes this release far from being boring or overcrowded. Well completed,perfectly recorded and mixed this massive release probably contains few surprises,but for Corea's fans it's another extremely enjoyable example of great artist's music.
2013's Trilogy showcased the engaging collaboration between pianist Chick Corea, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade. Virtuoso leaders in their own right, Corea, McBride, and Blade found common ground as a trio, exploring a mix of sophisticated standards as well as originals culled from Corea's extensive book. The album cracked the Top Ten of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart and earned two Grammys, including for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. The super-trio's follow-up, 2018's Trilogy 2, features further in-concert performances captured during their various tours between 2010 and 2016 in places like Ottawa, Bologna, Zurich, and St. Louis…
Within the last 18 months, Chick Corea has released albums with an eight-piece Latin ensemble (Antidote with the Spanish Heart Band) and a trio (Trilogy 2 with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade). On his new album Plays, the live audience is the band. Here I am with my piano," he says in the opening track. "The piano’s tuned up all nice, but we have to tune up. Yeah, we." Corea strikes a middle A. "Ahhh," the crowd sings back with a nervous giggle. G to A. "Aaah-aaah." So on and so forth; he teases them with increasingly complicated phrases, then settles into a lovely medley of Mozart’s Piano Sonata in F and George Gershwin’s "Someone to Watch Over Me." "It feels uncomfortable to just sit up on stage, play and nod at [people]," he says in the Plays press bio. "I like people to feel like they’re in my living room and we’re hanging out."
This is a rather unusual tribute to Herbie Hancock on a couple different levels. There is no piano on the date, so obviously no one is heard trying to sound like Hancock; the intimate all-star trio (bassist Christian McBride, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and guitarist Mark Whitfield) avoids such typical Hancock hits as "Watermelon Man" and "Maiden Voyage," and several of the songs are real obscurities. The 14 Hancock compositions date from 1962-79, with one tune from 1985, so they do not cover his later output. Among the lesser-known tunes are the title track (first played by V.S.O.P.), "Sly" (from the Headhunters LP), and two melodies taken from the 1965 soundtrack of Blow-Up. Several of the songs (most notably "Driftin'") deserve to be revived more widely…