Silke Eberhard Trio: Being-A-Ning

Adventurous German saxophonist Silke Eberhard has long favored the trio format as a proving ground, even as she splits her time with her larger Potsa Lotsa ensemble, and other projects. With bassist Jan Roder and drummer Kay Lübke, she has cultivated a rapport that feels both intuitive and restless. Being-A-Ning, the group's fifth release—each one bearing the word "being" in its title—reaffirms that bond while pushing it forward. Although all three principals are well-versed in convention, rather than confining their prowess, it bestows a platform for left-field digressions.

Such latitude is clear in the way the leader's shapely phrases dissolve into scrawling shrieks or jarring multiphonics, only to rebalance, reconsider and continue on their poised path. In her sometimes abrupt switches from sunshine to squall, she recalls saxophonist Oliver Lake. It comes as no surprise then, that the angular head and stop-start impulses of "Lake" are dedicated to him. Like the American, Eberhard is an avowed disciple of Eric Dolphy, manifest in the intervallic leaps which enliven both her writing and her taut corkscrewing alto saxophone.

Roder and Lübke, veterans of Eberhard's other groups, embody the unit's inside/outside ethos with assurance. Lübke in particular amplifies the coloristic palette, whether rustling shells under Roder's wiry solo on "Golden Fish" or shifting his attack across different cymbals to signal transitions on the opening track, "What's In Your Bag," a tune that bursts from the gate with a bouncy Ornette Coleman-like gait and a breathless onward motion.

The program's concision—ten cuts in just over 45 minutes—adds to its impact. The title number rides a sinuous post-bop line, which veers between sprightly dash and retarded sway, punctuated by crisp drum breaks during the recapitulation. "Sao" frames exchanges of clanking metal, arco bass filigree and vaulting alto, while staggered interlocking parts launch the closing "Rubber Boots," which features Eberhard ramping up to a belligerent squawk. Each piece highlights the threesome's ability to balance precision with abandon, discipline with disruption.

Being-A-Ning confirms the Silke Eberhard Trio as an archetypal contemporary working outfit: one that tips its hat to its forebears while carving out its own niche in ingenious style.