Triplicate was the most pared-down of the five ECM recordings made under the great Brit bassist's name that featured a fledgling Steve Coleman. Following three top-notch quintet releases, Holland looked to shine a spotlight on the alto-saxophonist's unique new conceptual approach at the same time that he and his young coterie were hatching the M-Base collective initiative. Without a conventional harmony instrument, Coleman takes more liberties with rhythmic displacement and harmonic tension alongside a pair of legendary Miles' alumnus that are equal to the challenge, having since adopted a more traditional, if exploratory, acoustic stance. When the saxophonist is more harmonically palatable, such as on Holland-penned ballad ‘Quiet Fire’ and DeJohnette's ‘Blue’, the mood is elegantly noir-ish. An edge-of-seat take on Charlie Parker's ‘Segments’ – Bird being an early, consistent influence on Coleman – rounds off an intriguing sonic alliance that one can't help thinking might have been a more mouth-watering prospect in ‘live’ performance.