Martin Johnson

Linda Mahon Oh's album, Entry, was one of the most intriguing recordings of 2009.

The lineup was both austere and feisty, and it was for good reason.

Oh and her bandmates, trumpeter Ambrose Akin, Missouri, and drummer Obed Calver, were in their 20s and eager to tell the jazz world in no uncertain terms that they belonged.

Mission accomplished.

Now each has an established academic position, and all three are at the top tier of their profession.

For this recording, O convened a new trio featuring a Ken Missouri and drummer Taishan Sori, who is her colleague in Vijay Iyer's trio.

As you could hear on the track we just heard, Living Proof, they still make assertive music, but it's more relaxed now.

Her new band has the convivial air of friends trading triumphs and challenges over drinks or a meal.

The bass has long been regarded as a foundational or cornerstone instrument, but in O's hands, it's nimbler.

She can move from setting the beat to dancing with the soloist in the blink of an eye, as she does there on Portal.

Or, as we can hear on The Sweetest Water, her solos energize the music like an accelerant.

In between O's trio recordings, she built a reputation as a composer with a broad tonal palette and an appetite for experimental configurations.

Her previous recording featured vocal leaves from Sada Seppa and Mark Turner's reserved approach to saxophone on the front line.

And she's written compelling music that honors her Asian heritage and Australian upbringing.

This recording also offers an opportunity to contrast Trumpeter or Ken Missouri's development.

Much of his work is complex and thematic, but here he lets his hair down and shows his playful side.

By going back to her first setting, a smaller group than her typical band, Linda Mahon Oh is presenting an argument that with the right musicians, less is more.

Throughout the history of jazz, there have been many famous duo collaborators, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, just to name three, and I'm sure avid jazz fans can add many more without a second thought.

Throughout the history of jazz, there have been many famous duo collaborators, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, just to name three, and I'm sure avid jazz fans can add many more without a second thought.

Throughout the history of jazz, there have been many famous duo collaborators, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, just to name three, and I'm sure avid jazz fans can add many more without a second thought.