Ari Hoenig/Jean-Michel Pilc Project

Although now based in New York, pianist Jean-Michel Pilc is a Parisian native, while drummer Ari Hoenig hails from Philadelphia. They've been musical associates for a decade, but only last year began sharing leadership of the H-P Project, which also includes bassist Hans Glawishnig. The shared tag is entirely appropriate. Both are dazzlingly inventive musicians whose supple and electrifying playing repeatedly spurs one another to new heights and fresh insights on Pilc's New Dreams and Hoenig's Inversations (both recently released on Dreyfus). Pilc infuses both his own tunes and covers with unpredictable rhythmic sophistication, while his nimble technique includes sufficient percussive panache to rival virtually any drummer. Hoenig, meanwhile, has a distinctly lyrical touch that's sometimes so graceful it flows like water, and at others beats with the refined freneticism of a hummingbird's wings. When both are sprinting across scintillating musical terrain, it's sometimes hard to separate the instruments. Together they concoct evocative stuff that's constantly shifting angles, dimensions, and temperaments, opening striking new vistas at virtually every turn.
Fridays, Saturdays, 9 p.m. Starts: Feb. 1. Continues through Feb. 2, 2008