This set brings together the inventive New York alto-saxist Rudresh Mahanthappa (familiar from his duets with pianist Vijay Iyer), Indo-Dutch drummer Chander Sardjoe and Irish bass-guitarist Ronan Guilfoyle in a conversation first conceived for Ireland's Kilkenny arts festival in 2005. The trigger was the mutual interest of all three in south Indian music and its compatibilities with contemporary jazz, so the pieces explore lots of intricate melodies and rhythms. Sardjoe's arsenal of pounding rolls and bossy, peremptory cymbal crashes sounds a shade graceless at first, and the staccato interlockings of angular melodies make the theory sound more dominant than the practice for a while. But the session (five pieces by Mahanthappa, three by Guilfoyle) distinctly warms up, and the saxist's fast-moving melodies and tonal range carry the central role unflaggingly, from postboppish soulfulness to a woody, tone-bending sound resembling the south Indian nadaswaram oboe. Mahanthappa's Installation is a highlight: it juggles grooves from the heavy funk opening to a cruising free-swing in which the saxophonist adopts a light-stepping, Ornette Coleman feel. Guilfoyle's Guile is a delicate rumination over more impressionistic percussion. Groove Band Rebellion features flying sax lines over crunching drums. Traditional is, appropriately, explicitly jazzy down to its walking bassline and Lee Konitz-like sax improv, and Chant is a hauntingly moving lament. MSG might have been put together as a festival novelty, but it works. --John Fordham