On two prior outings as leader of Sicilian Defense, California-born trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson was the only horn in a lineup that featured the taut playing of guitarist Miles Okazaki. On 3 Times Round, by contrast, Finlayson is one of three horns alongside the alto and tenor saxophones of LA's Steve Lehman and Washington, D.C.-based Brian Settles. The band moniker is no more, the guitar is absent, yet pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist John Hébert, and drummer Craig Weinrib remain in place to put Finlayson’s rhythmically dense yet elastic writing into motion. The precise, declarative unison parts and angular, groove-driven solos can be reminiscent of Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Finlayson’s home base for nearly two decades. But in “The Moon Is New” and elsewhere, one hears his ability to extend ambitious ideas over a long arc, moving between orchestrated passages, open improvisation, and a more ethereal, out-of-tempo zone with textures closer to those of chamber music.