Josh Deutsch/Nico Soffiato Trio: Redshift

The longstanding partnership between trumpeter Josh Deutsch and guitarist Nico Soffiato, placed in flattering light on the ever- welcoming Time Gels (Self-produced, 2011) and Reverse Angle (Self-Produced, 2015), continues to bear fruit with Redshift, the pair's first album for the Italian nusica.org imprint. Focusing on the trio format by working alternately with two of the jazz world's most notable drumming forces—the irrepressible Allison Miller and the boundless Dan Weiss—Deustch and Soffiato create open windows into numerous worlds of sound and substance.

Charms fill the night sky from the first sounds of Deutsch's aptly placed "Arrival," an alluring number built around an attractive melodic snippet and buoyed by Miller's sensitive yet propulsive stick work. Then there's the lyrical draw of Soffiato's arrangement of "Paul," a piece taken from indie rock's Big Thief and rooted by Weiss' tasteful groove; the Balkan-based "44.2," Deutsch's reimagining of the second movement of Robert Schumann's E-flat-major piano quintet; the leaders' collaboratively-penned "Consolation Prize," playing on close personal and chordal proximity; and the midstream "Endnote," nodding to 1990s rock in effects, tone and tensions. With those first five songs Deutsch and Soffiato suggest myriad influences and subscribe to no single school of thought, yet they create and retain a signature sound all their own. Close collaborators since around 2005, they speak and breathe together.

The second half of the album proves no less diverse in nature. "Triad Tune" relies on shifting sands, putting Weiss' mastery of time and space at the fore. "Remember When" speaks to rolling nostalgia, with Miller moving the train along. The effects-laden"Tooch-Taach" places some Miles Davis- esque fusion blowing over a disorienting foundation. And "Time Lapse" serves as a continuation of sorts on the core pair's previously-established experiments with looping lines and tides. Then it all comes to an end with a cover of Sufjan Stevens' "John My Beloved" that jettisons drums. It's a beautifully cloistered close to an album that's small on personnel but large on personality. The deeper Deutsch and Soffitato dig, the more riches they seem to find.

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