Inversations is a great title, and drummer Ari Hoenig lives up to it by turning tunes on their ear, building interesting melodic structures without losing his connection to listeners. Working as he frequently does with the lyrically self-possessed French pianist Jean Michel Pilc and German bassist Johannes Weidenmueller, the Philly native immediately grabs our attention with a jabbing, hard-edged reconfiguration of Charlie Parker's 'Anthropology." On an album dominated by originals, he's equally good at accentuating the ebb as well as the flow on ballads. With nice contributions from saxophonists Jacques Schwarz-Bart and Will Vinson, the music is always in motion. You’re never unaware of Hoenig's presence--he's an aggressive, more-is-more type of drummer--but he has the personality to make that approach work and the gumption to hold things together. --Lloyd Sachs