An aptly titled album, Friends finds Chick in a beautifully relaxed setting with three jazz luminaries: Joe Farrell (Chick’s Return to Forever partner), Eddie Gomez (longtime Bill Evans bassist) and Steve Gadd (one of Chick’s favorite drummers). The mood might be relaxed, but the music is anything but laid-back: the quartet digs deep on eight of Chick’s originals, including the revelatory “Samba Song” and the supremely swinging “The One Step.”