Close to half of pianist Ran Blake’s 30-plus albums are solo recordings, and nearly all are drummerless. So last year, when he released Sonic Temples (GM Recordings), his first album with a standard jazz piano trio in 40 years of performing, it was an event. Blake, bassist Ed Schuller, and drummer George Schuller made their US debut at the Regattabar last Thursday, but it was hardly a standard piano-trio set. With guitarist Dave "Knife" Fabris and alto-saxophonist Nicole Kampgen joining the proceedings, Blake mixed things up with solos and ensembles of various sizes. The trio played only two of the set’s eight tunes.

Ed Schuller opened with Monk’s "Crepuscule with Nellie," using the composition for a concise, melodic improvisation, his steady, lyrical presence anchoring Blake’s unpredictability. Blake was in classic form on his unaccompanied "Jeanne in Italy" (dedicated to singer Jeanne Lee). Bright sharp chords rang out and faded into short fragmentary phrases and quiet chordings; a waltz materialized and drifted away. The sudden dynamic contrasts, nuanced touch, and dreamy ambiguity of the piece were all marks of Blake at his enigmatic best. George Schuller’s "Fragile" solo evolved from sparse bells and rattles into a densely layered trap-kit excursion.

Fabris and Kampgen came on next for an ensemble version of Blake’s "Arlene," which moves toward a sudden outburst of anguish that’s typical of the play of light and dark in his music. Blake and Fabris performed a delicately colored "Mood Indigo" before the trio made its belated debut on "It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing." Blake’s paraphrases and his fragmentation of the melody, his insertion of obliquely related phrases, and his unexpected lapses into silence proved him to be one of Monk’s true heirs.

The quintet returned for a medley of music for Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse der Spieler and then Ed Schuller’s African-flavored "Dra-Kumba." A duet with Kampgen on "God Bless the Child" found Blake revoicing chords behind the saxophonist and taking a solo that flared and faded quickly. The trio finished with another moody Blake original, "Memphis," a musical description of Martin Luther King’s assassination. Blake evoked the sunny Southern day with an upbeat solo before a climactic rim shot from George Schuller mimicked the killer’s gun. In Ran Blake’s music, violence erupts as easily as beauty. It’s an uncommonly difficult world for other musicians to enter into. But he was clearly in sympathetic company.