Misha Mengelberg, Ken Vandermark and Hamid Drake at the Storefront Theatre

When the Dutch free jazz pianist Misha Mengelberg performs, it's easy to think of someone contentedly whittling away at a stick of wood. Toying with the notes, delicately angling and re-angling chords to refract melodic light, Mengelberg is never in a rush to make a statement. He doesn't know when he is finished with a song until the song is finished with him, at which point he smiles and suddenly stops.

Everything, his wily style tells you, comes in time-and, crucially, in the moment.

Mengelberg is in that kind of zone whether he is performing solo or as part of a group of…