With one personnel change, the lineup from Chick Corea’s 1978 release Friends became the lineup for 1981’s Three Quartets, a major standout in the Corea discography. But the change wasn’t exactly small: Joe Farrell’s soprano and tenor saxes and flute gave Friends a varied textural profile, whereas Three Quartets became a tour de force showcase for Michael Brecker on tenor sax all the way. Meanwhile, bassist Eddie Gómez—with a pointed, saturated sound during solos—brings an alertly swinging approach to Corea’s ambitious compositional sequence. And legendary session drummer Steve Gadd, bandmate of both Brecker and Gomez in the supergroup Steps—a precursor to Steps Ahead—completes the lineup with an intricately funky and versatile flair. “Quartet No. 1,” “Quartet No. 2,” and “Quartet No. 3” have a semi-classical nomenclature, and yet Three Quartets is not a “third stream” project like 1983’s Lyric Suite for Sextet. It’s acoustic jazz, with Corea on piano straight through (he plays Rhodes on three of Friends’ eight tracks). And Corea’s writing takes the band through unusual moods, rhythmic feels, and improvisational pathways. “Quartet No. 1” begins with ascending cluster harmonies that defy immediate classification—and then they’re off: The loping, asymmetric beat sets Brecker up for a solo of tremendous intensity and creative will. The middle quartet is split into two parts—inspired by Ellington and Coltrane, respectively—with the first being introduced with sumptuous solo piano, and the second with drums. The third brings it all together: the pendulum-like shifts between samba and swing; the opaque and dissonant harmony; the cool and alluring lyricism that suffuses it all. And for a long time that was the end—until a CD reissue added four bonus tracks and a whole new dimension to the band’s story. The performances on these extra numbers are just as solid as anything on the original Three Quartets, and the tenor-drum workout over Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” is simply jaw-dropping—not least of all because the drummer is Corea.