Is jazz invigorated or paralyzed by its addiction to tradition? Many of today's top players can't seem to shake the retro virus; others escape it by playing too objectively or abstractly -- and in this way only emulate Tristano, Monk, and the other niche artists who specialized in avoiding mainstream attention.

On his second solo album, pianist Jason Moran follows a more challenging third path, with a performance on this trio set that's easy to listen to but never conventional. Moran's style is idiosyncratic, built on rhythms that alternately lurch and swing, with jagged harmonies that play well off the snapping acoustic bass of Tarus Mateen. When he stretches out, it's not about chops, though he's got 'em, or rehashing older ideas; he understands, better than most of his peers, that jazz is about moving forward rather than running in place.

His covers are eccentric: Ellington obscurities, something by Björk, music hidden in the Godfather soundtrack. Rather than interpret familiar standards, Moran chooses material that, like his own writing, fits his aesthetic. Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits blow through it with a bracing freedom; on tracks like Jaki Byard's "Twelve," they groove through the metrical minefield, giving Moran dynamic support for a fluid yet pointed improvisation.

There's no pretension, and nothing derivative, in Moran's style. These absences, as well as his strengths, mark him as a player of huge potential, and Facing Left as a disc to remember.