Manuel Valera

Fri., Jan. 15, 5:45 and 7:15 p.m., free with museum admission of $16, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Ben Franklin Parkway, 215-763-8100, philamuseum.org.

by Shaun Brady

jazz

After combining his own four-piece with a string quartet for his previous album, Cuban-born pianist Manuel Valera strips down to a trio on his latest, Currents (MaxJazz), with invigorating results. Paired with longtime collaborators James Genus on bass and Ernesto Simpson on drums, Valera's fifth record mines relatively straight-ahead territory but finds a consistent chemistry. The son of a veteran saxophonist who shared the stage with virtually every Cuban jazz legend one could name, Valera brings a deep understanding of both traditions to a repertoire that ranges from a fractured take on Monk's "We See" to a lovely but muscular stroll through "I Fall in Love Too Easily" to a tightly-in-the-pocket move to the electric keyboards on the disc's title track.