The Swiss piano trio Vein can veer toward being too flawlessly polished for their own jazz good, but as they’ve shown in partnerships with improvising stars such as American saxophonist David Liebman and Greg Osby their work has fire as well as flair. Pianist Michael Arbenz, his drummer brother Florian and bassist Thomas Lähns reaffirm that, even in such a potentially circumspect context as this venture, celebrating the classical backgrounds they share. All the pieces are originals but tweak familiar structures, such as the Prelude that opens as a thoughtful, slow-zigzagging solo piano melody, reiterated by Lähns’ gracefully pliable bass phrasing and developed with the cool animation of a classic Bill Evans trio. There are stealthily spacious meditations such as Poeme de Nuit, and snappy drum-like flyers where the intensity almost tips into free-jazz (In Medias Res). Michael Arbenz’s Sheherazade is a fittingly compelling tale of talkative tabla figures and pithy solos, and Lähns’ Pastorale is a spine-tinglingly evocative display of bowed-bass expressiveness, while Ballad of the Monkeys shows just how hard this refined band can rock.
