Anti-

Mose Allison, at 82, remains a gifted pianist, a laidback singer whose songs are often too clever for their own good – an artist caught in the cracks between jazz and blues. For his first studio recording since 1997, Allison leads a trio augmented by tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, acoustic and electric guitars and mandola. He’s as sly as ever, poking fun at conventional religious thinking with the bouncy “Modest Proposal,” lamenting woes of contemporary life on the smoky, after-midnight title track, and making a world-weary plea to be treated right on the barroom ramble “Ask Me Nice.” “My brain is steady working,” he sings on the jaunty opening tune. Not to worry, that gray matter still operates on hipster time.