Avishai Cohen, Gently Disturbed

Cohen's command of this trio from the bass chair is rigorously matter-of-fact, less a star turn than a force of nature, made even more pervasive by his being the sole composer on seven of the eleven tunes and co-writing two others. The songs he writes are similar to the ensemble interplay he fosters — clean but dense, with no muss, but a fair amount of fuss. Some of it comes in dynamic gusts, such as the taut, percussive eruptions (by both bass and drums) on "Chutzpan" and "Eleven Wives." Some of it comes from a plangent yet elusive pulse, as with the not-quite-rondo tail-chasing structure and 9/4 time signature of "Pinzin Kinzin," a toe-tapper that will either dislocate your ankle or put sweat on your brow trying to keep tabs on the groove. The title track opens with a vamp that begins to quote "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" before swerving into faux-spooky territory, like a Tim Burton film. The closer, "Structure In Motion," is as chirpy and serene as a Christmas carol. There's even room for an Israeli folk song ("Lo Baiom Velo Balyla").

The trio's longtime pianist Sam Barsh has moved on to his own discs, replaced by 21-year-old prodigy Shai Maestro, who plays with a bit less fire and more refinement. But drummer Mark Guiliana kindles fireworks all over the place — he's practically Billy Cobham on "Eleven Wives" — and puts a rockish tinge on the cross-genre playfulness that, mixed with chamber-style formalism, inevitably draws comparison to the Bad Plus and EST. Inevitably, however, the focus returns to Cohen, who continually creates expansive, intellectual music without sacrificing his precise, almost pointillistic, pizzicato style.