Los Angeles-based guitarist Doug MacDonald has released another top-notch album with fellow trio members Mike Flick (bass) and Kendall Kay (drums). Making music as a trio may hold certain challenges, but when it is done right, it really allows the players to shine. And they do on this new album.

Edwin Alley offers eight original songs along with one cover (“You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To”). The album is a follow-up to MacDonald’s critically acclaimed Serenade to Highland Park, and it is just as satisfying. The highlight of the disc is “Three for Two,” an exercise in meter and rhythm that explores every beat to the utmost. The Doug MacDonald Trio clearly spend as much energy listening to each other as they do playing. Bravo.