Two offs might make an on… or alternatively, it could be twice as off. Which means music that is doubly switched on in the case of the punning title Off-Off Broadway.

After the revelations contained on Mesmerism, the CD on which Sorey, one of the most fearlessly experimental drummers on the contemporary jazz scene, pulled a left-field manoeuvre by investigating ‘the tradition’ in a way that was both accessible and adventurous, comes a set of standards that is expected and unexpected in equal measure. On one hand there is Cole Porter, Strayhorn, Van Heusen and Burke, and on the other Andrew Hill, Ornette, Monk and McCoy. In other words, the premise of the music, recorded live by Sorey's trio with special guest, alto saxophonist Greg Osby, is an investigation of what constitutes a classic song, or maybe a way of saying the avant-garde had tunes as well as sounds. This scintillating performance makes the case very convincingly. Sorey and an agile trio in which pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Russell Hall come into their own for the astute slip-roads and detours they take while staying on long narrative paths, are excellent, while the leader is as dynamic and detailed as he has been since the start of his career.

But the trump card is really Osby, a key figure in jazz in the 1980s and 90s whose profile is not commensurate with his talent. His playing throughout has all the focused energy and incisive line construction of a contemporary great, and he and the band peak on his original ‘Please Stand By’, a song with a willowy melodic line and tightly gripped rhythmic drive that intriguingly synthesies swing and backbeat so as to create something switched on that has the offbeat appeal of the best creative music.

Do the math(s): Trio +1 equals a single magical quartet.