Guitarist Mary Halvorson’s third album as a leader features the same band as its predecessor, 2010’s Saturn Sings — trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon, bassist John Hébert, and drummer Ches Smith. The compositions have titles, but are also numbered, running 21 through 29. The band has come together in the two years since its first recording session, and has a strong collective voice on Bending Bridges. The way Irabagon’s piercing alto does battle with Halvorson’s distorted guitar on the opening “Sinks When She Rounds the Bend (No. 22)” immediately reveals that the rules of engagement have changed. The players, to a man, feel more confident in putting their own stamp on the leader’s music. The almost romantic “Hemorrhaging Smiles (No. 25)” gives the saxophonist the spotlight for a long stretch, as though it’s his own trio; meanwhile, “Love in Eight Colors (No. 21)” features an extended passage of unaccompanied trumpet.