It is for good reason that trumpet trios are rare in jazz: few horn players have both the tonal resources and rhythmic acuity to color and animate the open spaces. A notable exception to that rule, Roy Campbell has forged a distinctive sound with his Pyramid Trio by relying on simple structures that facilitate a vibrant, free-flowing give and take among the players. On Ethnic Stew and Brew, he basks in the ocean-deep support of the hard-toiling bassist William Parker and marvelously attuned drummer Hamid Drake, a Chicago veteran who joined the Pyramid after playing with Campbell and Parker in German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann's Die Like a Dog quartet and Chicago Tentet. The songs, which provide plenty of room for soloing, are simultaneously expansive and grounded. The well-traveled leader, a Bronx native who studied with hard-bop prince Lee Morgan, went to school with internationalist Don Cherry, and lived for a time in Rotterdam, is a sneaky stylist on trumpet, flugelhorn, and pocket trumpet. Whether applying stubby squibs or Miles-like purrs, shrieking multiphonics or Spanish lace, he plays with self-effacing strength. With the extraordinary Drake providing a shimmying groove, the music dances even when the social commentary of "Malcolm, Martin and Mandela" and "Amadou Diallo" comes into play. --Lloyd Sachs