Uneasy

is 's first piano trio outing since 2015's . It marks the recorded debut of this group with drummer and bassist . The trio played live across 2019 in the run-up to this December recording. has been in 's orbit for 20 years; they first recorded together on 2003's , and also collaborated on 's in 2017. got to know both men while serving as guest faculty at the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music in Alberta, Canada, where and are artistic co-directors. Among these nine selections are reworkings of catalog pieces including 's early "Configurations," new works, and interpretations of s "Night and Day," and "Drummer's Song" by pianist, mentor, and friend . The title of set-opener "Children of Flint" refers to an environmental and humanitarian crisis that occurred when the Michigan city's water supply was poisoned with lead due to neglect from its state government, which then attempted a cover-up. An ongoing investigation resulted in charges against the state's former governor. The song begins as a spectral dirge before opens it up with ticking ride cymbals and malleted tom-toms. asserts a loping modal melody that responds to with a driving, circular pulse before delivering a deeply melodic solo. The topical direction continues with "Combat Breathing," which composed for a 2014 Black Lives Matter action. It offers a knotty cascade of open tonalities, resonant arpeggios, and focused harmonic interplay amid a dynamic rhythmic flow. balances the elegant changes with angular articulations of them amid percussive left-hand infusions. dances along his snare with his hi-hat reverberating around 's swinging pizzicato fills and accents, while responds joyously with detailed harmonic inquiry. 's "Drummer's Song" begins with complex interlocking rhythms from . bridges their staggered, complex, head-to-head post-bop assertions with a commanding authority. She controls the swirl of harmonic and rhythmic tension, then metes it out a little at a time, acceding to the music's own dictates regarding flow and spark. "Augury" is a solo piano meditation displaying the piano's polyphonic possibilities in 's work across the middle register. The title piece not only infers but illustrates a dramatic paradox. Its rhythmic urgency contrasts with the trio's assertion of color, mode, and dynamic. Fat chords meet driving snares as contrasts with alternating elongated and clipped bassline pulses. Closer "Entrustment" is a processional. plays droning chords as an intro before 's tom-toms and 's bass supply heft and direction. The motion is ever-widening, circular, and constant, dripping with force and poignancy. offers a portrait of an emergent trio discovering a multivalently complex language while simultaneously articulating its myriad possibilities. The end result is centered, action-oriented music that is at once gloriously colorful and brilliantly articulated. ~ Thom Jurek