***1/2 Greg Bendian's Trio Pianissimo

BALANCE

(Truemedia Jazzworks)

Boston guitarist extraordinaire Reeves Gabrels has joked, with insight, that melody is "the last frontier" in contemporary exploratory music. Here, drummer Greg Bendian -- whose avant-garde CV includes stints with Derek Bailey, John Zorn, Tom Cora, Mark Dresser, and others, plus years leading his own adventurous ensembles -- approaches that turf with brilliance. In performances like "Jill Cyborg" and "The Moisture," his hot trio (with bassist John Lockwood and pianist Steve Hunt) blend arrangement and improvisation. They tinker with dynamics and direction with unflagging finesse and utter devotion to melody. That makes their "out" playing as breezy and digestible -- and as quietly intelligent -- as "cool"-era Miles. Grooves and breathy passages abound in Bendian's eight original compositions, as does silence. Hunt in particular phrases beautifully. And Lockwood ricochets between propulsion and pure texture, reprising his role in the Fringe. It's a reminder that jazz need not be thorny or raw to be provocative.

-- Ted Drozdowski