This trio session captures Blue Note’s greatest pianist in collaboration with its greatest drummer and its greatest jazz composer. If this isn’t Blue Note’s absolute best, it is the label at its most foundational and it certainly displays Clark’s art in its most essential state. At Blue Note, it was a rite of passage for talented musicians to lead small-group sessions that relied almost entirely on their own improvisational abilities. After all, what good is the greatest architect if he can’t build shelter for himself alone in the woods? Though Clark was a unique composer and arranger who worked with musicians ranging from John Coltrane to Max Roach, it is something wonderful to see him speaking only with his fingers. Jamming over Broadway standards (Rodgers and Hart’s “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” Hammerstein’s “Softly As In a Morning Sunrise”) and favorites from his peers (Tadd Dameron’s “Tadd’s Delight”), Clark displays numerous feats of mischief and magic on the keys. Best of all is a solo rendering of Monk’s “I’ll Remember April,” as textured and rich as a full-band performance could ever hope to be.