Call it an urge or a compulsion; but pianist Paul Tillotson understands a musician's frontier spirit. He understands the drive to boldly go where no one has gone before in search of the un-played or yet-to-be-played. You know, those notes and phrases and patterns that taunt musicians in all their elusive and profane glory. Tillotson is willing to get out there, dad. He's got this urge himself.

Tillotson's also aware "out there" can leave listeners in the dust. He - along with drummer James Wormworth and bassist Mike Merrit, the other two members of The Love Trio - explores and improvises, but never at the listener's expense.

"My experience has always been following the first note with the next note that makes sense to me," Tillotson says from his home in New York City. "Not just patterns and weird stuff that really is not accessible. I like to keep it closer to the melody and the form."

Tillotson, who was mentored by jazz great Gene Harris, is a master of melody, keeping it prominent no matter how camouflaged it may seem.

He's also a master of ceremonies, where the trio transitions from soul-cat subtlety to 4th grade hi-jinx, and pandemonium ensues with interpretive dance, improvised raps, and audience sing-a-longs. Jazz ain't always a serious business, after all.

Tillotson frequently takes leave of the piano throne to mug and antagonize. The always-barefooted Wormworth bops manic and cool, swinging his arms in a blur like an octopus swatting at a swarm of mosquitoes. Acrobatics aside, he is deft and powerful; a killer drummer. Merrit, who helped bring the band together, is so in the pocket, he frequently seems ahead of Tillotson's next pitch.

Tillotson is what you might consider a heavyweight in the New York jazz scene. He's played the Montreaux Jazz Festival, The Den Haag Jazz Festival, The Jazz in the Canyon Festival, The Gene Harris Jazz Festival, and Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble. His trio returns to his native Boise every winter for a residency at the famous Sun Valley Lodge.

The first jazz record the 42-year-old Tillotson heard actually took a while to knock him out.

"It was Oscar Peterson's ‘The Sound Of The Trio,"' he says. "And that's what got me thinking. It took me a coupla weeks to get my head around that record because I was still in high school. It was so complicated and it was such a mind-blower. It would give me a headache there was so much information."

Tillotson would spin a little more each day until the needle finally hit the label on the B side.

"My jaw was on the ground when I realized how incredible what they were doing really was," he says.

You can do the same with either of The Love Trio's two albums, "Funky Good Time" or "Tequila Time," but you won't need a slide rule or Vicodin. It's multi-layered and gently textured with new things popping up at each listen. So the jazz fan up for a challenge can hang and the newbies can dig on the newness knowing things won't get too nuts.

"Tequila Time" showcases seven Tillotson compositions along with The Love Trio's take on tunes by artists like Prince, Lennon/McCartney, Duke Ellington, and Joni Mitchell. Sure, these covers are interpretive, but Tillotson likens them more to tributes.

"I tend to pick songs that, first of all, mean something to me," he says. "Because I'm a composer, I like when someone else writes something that rings; the lyric or just the melody draws me in and then I wanna play it because I think it's beautiful. I'm paying tribute to that song and that composer because of the things that draw me in and make me excited about it."

And it's with his original tunes that he pays tribute to what's around him, like strolling the streets of New York or how he recently proposed to his girlfriend in Mexico.

"I like to keep the music accessible," he says. "I like people to go along for the ride with me."

The way Tillotson tickles the ivories is magic, eliciting lilting cascades, rumbas, or somber musings while Wormworth and Merrit fall in behind. The rhythm section follows Tillotson's improv tighter than his own shadow. And that's everything to him.

"To stay in there and interact with the guys," he says, "that's the joy that we get playing together. That's the thrill."

Paul Tillotson Love Trio plays Saturday, June 9, 6 & 10 p.m. at Montage Music Hall, 50 Chestnut Street, as part of the 2007 Rochester International Jazz Festival. Tickets cost $20-$25 or free with Club Pass. For more information visit http://www.rochesterjazz.com/.