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. Once again, the performances reveal yet more layers to their intuitive, almost psychic interplay. Part of what makes Corea, McBride, and Blade's work together so compelling is how rhythmically kinetic it is. McBride and Blade are both immensely rhythmic, muscular performers who punctuate every phrase and accent with deft articulation. They are a perfect match for Corea, who balances his deeply layered chordal harmonies with ear-popping rhythmic motifs and architectural lines that dance and spin right along with his bandmates. It's a tactile sound that elevates standards like their opening take on "How Deep Is the Ocean" and their swaggeringly loping rendition of Thelonious Monk's "Crepuscule with Nellie." Elsewhere, they offer similarly bewitching versions of Corea's 1968 classic "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs" and an expansive rendition of his 1973 Return to Forever Latin fusion number "500 Miles High." We also get a propulsive reading of Steve Swallow's "Eiderdown," an equally brisk take on Miles Davis' "All Blues," and a vibrant closing interpretation of Billy Strayhorn's "Lotus Blossom." ~ Matt Collar