New Renaissance of the Jazz Trio
Chick brings Five Peace Band-mates Christian and Brian back together

Chick’s newest trio finds him in the company of a stellar rhythm tandem: bassist Christian McBride (Sting, Pat Metheny, McCoy Tyner), one of the most outstanding and celebrated musicians of his generation, and drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade (Herbie Hancock, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and longstanding member of the Wayne Shorter Quartet).

This trio formed the rhythmic backbone of the Five Peace Band on its tour of Asia and America in 2009. As a trio, they’ll take up the musical dialogue that started there—dynamic, deeply interactive and irrepressibly swinging.

Interview with Chick

What's your early vision for the repertoire for this trio?

In 2008 I put The Five Peace Band together with John McLaughlin. We had two long tours and on the second tour, the original drummer, Vinnie Colaiuta couldn't make it.

The band with Vinnie had a "fusion" kind of impact to it, a style at which Vinnie is one of the original masters. So the challenge became to find a drummer that would give the band an extra lift but who would not approach the music in a similar way as Vinnie did. When I had that thought, Brian Blade immediately came to mind.

I had admired Brian's original approach to the drums way back when I first heard him play with the Josh Redman group. I could imagine Brian taking the 5PB repertoire and interpreting it in a completely different way to Vinnie.

Well Brian came into the band and, for sure, took a whole new approach to the songs. In fact, it felt like we were playing a completely different repertoire as Brian found endless new twists to the creation of the rhythm and emotions of the compositions.


Are you planning on writing new music for this project?

I have some concepts of what I'd like to write. There's one piece I was fooling around with at sound checks with Brian on the 5PB tour that I'd like to try. I've also asked Christian and Brian to contribute some new compositions especially for the new trio.


You’re working a lot with Christian this year. What quality as a bass player attracts you to him?

Composition. Christian is a masterful musician. He contributes great rhythmic ideas to any musical situation. But more than that, his communication abilities are at the top and he's a lot of fun to make music with. 


How about Brian Blade—he seems like he's from the same sector of the universe as you.

Brian is a master colorist as well as master drummer. He certainly is a unique voice easily recognized after hearing just a few seconds of his touch. Like Christian, he constantly contributes creative ideas to the flow of the music.


What's your expectations for this new trio?

I'm not sure what to expect but I am sure that it will be a fun musical adventure. I'm looking forward to it.

CC - 9 Jul 10

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