Vital Information draws vigorously on piano-trio tradition across two discs

Steve Smith is at the center of Vital Information,

Steve Smith says he wants to add some muscle to the piano-trio tradition, and the drummer has signaled the intentional transition  by titling his Wounded Bird release "Time Flies." The title picks up the bebop pioneer Bud Powell's "Tempus Fugit," the familiar Latin phrase that means the same thing.

The Powell tune is one of several by composers outside the Vital Information personnel, which includes keyboards player Manuel Valera and bassist Janek Gwizdala.  George Garzone sits in on several tracks, lending the extra heft of his lusty tenor sax.

A second disc, focused on this quartet configuration, centers on a loosely integrated suite, with compositional credits shared by all players. "A Prayer for the Generations" comprises eight parts. Those divisions don't carry titles, leaving the listener to interpret how the free-flowing sections fulfill the suite's ambitious title.

I found "A Prayer for the Generations" involving on the whole. It seems sporadic in inspiration, however, and only vaguely cohesive. It could have been either longer or shorter, without much harm. But at least it spreads the group rapport further than the first disc's program allows. Disc Two has a kind of prelude that prepares the ground for "Prayer," as the quartet ranges nimbly over John Coltrane's "One Down, One Up."

George Garzone lends special oomph to VI.

"Emergence," the first disc's opening track, firms up expectations under the guidance of Valera, who sets the melodic and harmonic tone. Frequent breaks for drum fills, and the way Smith's drums bounce off the pianist's phrases, seem to present Smith's artistic credo. The rapid pace is sustained in the first borrowing from the Bud Powell book, "Tempus Fugue II," which spotlights the leader's deftness on brushes and includes Gwizdala's first solo of the set.

The brushwork is also well-considered and nicely detailed on "Darn That Dream," which features a tasty electric-bass solo against piano chords. When Powell is next turned to, on "Un Poco Loco," Smith takes a good drum solo, with his trio colleagues' punctuation, very much in the bipolar spirit of the piece. The ensemble unity is tight, driving. Those qualities are brought to the fore in a Smith/Valera original, "Choreography in Six," whose rhythmic intricacies Vital Information treats as second nature.

Among the heights reached when Garzone sits in is a powerful sojourn through McCoy Tyner's
"Inception," with some explosive tenor sax and Valera channeling the composer's signature two-fisted energy.  The trio's only other guest in the program is Mike Mainieri, whose vibraphone adds a little extra interest to Valera's pedestrian "No Qualm." The vibist's "Self-Portrait" is a quiet exercise in the pop-ballad genre.

Thelonious Monk's "Ugly Beauty" has an intriguingly dreamy interpretation, with Valera on electric piano again. A perennial jazzman's favorite — Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" — features Smith and Garzone at their best, with an oblique treatment of the familiar melody. The bassist's sole contribution as a composer is  "Erdnase," a ruminative finale that displays him aptly suave and plugged-in, as the leader varies his percussion style to emphasize gong and toms.

Smith has expanded upon his jazz-fusion reputation creatively with this release, and he has excellent help.