The evening's most expansive performance features Charlie Parker's blues in A-flat with all four soloists plus drummer Jason Brown — who replaces Kyle Poole for this tune — taking extended statements. Tarantino and Greenblatt each deliver ten choruses on alto and trumpet respectively, Cohen stretches to eleven on piano, and Brown contributes nine choruses on drums at a tempo that accelerates to 225 BPM. The forty-chorus total over the twelve-bar form gives the ten-minute performance the feel of a competitive cutting session, with each soloist matching the others in length and intensity. Parker composed Chi Chi during his Verve period, and its simple blues structure belies the high-level improvisation it can inspire. The drummer substitution adds an element of novelty — Brown's style brings a different rhythmic energy than Poole's. After the quiet Peace that preceded it, the sudden eruption into extended blues blowing creates the program's most dramatic shift.
