The band's touch is supremely light on "Tumble Quiet" (which adds a faint recording of an electric clothes dryer), but its chamberlike feel doesn't partake of the pompousness or preciousness that mars so many classical-influenced performances-Goldman's percussive patter injects wonderful electricity and tension. On paper this trio might sound painfully clever and obnoxiously flashy, but its music pulses with humanity and warmth-the transformations and transitions in its songs arise organically from the players' rapid-fire three-way conversation

Where the Danny Fox Trio’s debut album, The One Constant (Songlines), highlighted the pianist-composer’s classical influences, the second emphasizes his penchant for playfulness.

The Great Nostalgist is the Danny Fox Trio’s third release, and after spending time with the bunch, it shapes up as their best. This comes down to the benefits of communication sharpened over time, as well as the maturing compositional and interpretive skills of the band, but also to the nature of the recording, captured analog by Taylor Wood in the living room of a 100-year old house in the Catskills Mountains. The warm sound of the bass alone is a joy for the ear, and the whole is an assured, occasionally spectacular achievement.

A group like the Danny Fox Trio and an album like The Great Nostalgist both serve as strong reminders that there's no shortcut for building empathy and there's no technological advancement in the world that can substitute for big ears, strong reflexes, and their attendant responses. Togetherness is truly a time-honed ideal, and music benefits not from what captures and/or manipulates it, but from whence it comes.

But Mr. Fox’s sound — his group’s sound — is complete within itself and not in a hurry; it’s cool but not modish. It feels developed apart from the current scene in clubs and music schools, looking outside and backward, as in the slow, curious “Wide Eyed” and the short solo-piano “Patriot Daze,” which present a new version of a ruminative, imposing, orderly chamber-jazz tradition that goes back to Duke Ellington. These are prepared and worked-out pieces, episodic and detailed; these band members know one another’s moves, but the songs don’t rely on improvised sound and interplay to get over.