Tenor saxophone giant Lew Tabackin, who is appearing at Birdland this week with his Spirits of New York quartet, has a unique way of using body language to dramatize his solos. When he plays a “small,” or understated phrase, he literally makes himself smaller by crunching his knees together and crouching down; when he plays a more extroverted phrase, he releases his constricted limbs and jumps a few inches in the air; when he challenges his sidemen to a “chase” chorus, he not only turns in their direction, but sidles up to them with a hostile look in his eye that’s equal parts Coleman Hawkins and Wild Bill Hickok.

Mr. Tabackin has played two important gigs in the city this summer, both times as part of quartets that pair him with – and pit him against – another heavyweight soloist. A month ago at the Kitano on Madison Avenue, he costarred with the formidable young pianist Benny Green. On Wednesday night at Birdland, he went into the ring against trumpeter Tom Harrell and a rhythm section of bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Bill Goodwin.

Mr. Harrell is one of those rare musicians equally versed as a leader (and composer-arranger) and sideman. He knows exactly when to play against the grain of Mr. Tabackin’s tenor and when to blend with it. The dark and mysterious Mr. Harrell also provides a good visual contrast with the blond and bearded Mr. Tabackin: While the saxophonist bounces all over the stage, the trumpeter is withdrawn and motionless, crafting superb solos with a minimum of movement.

There is no pianist in the Spirits of New York quartet – it would be too much. All four participants in the quartet interact freely, making familiar patterns of melody and solos seem less formulaic than they might in a traditional quintet. As if to provide a vivid illustration of how effective such music can be, Mr. Tabackin opened with a long, rubato duo alongside Mr. Drummond, ruminating his way through “Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup” and “I Can’t Get Started” – a comment on beginning the set, perhaps?

When Mr. Harrell joined in, the three musicians gradually made their way into Tadd Dameron’s bop standard “Hot House,” at which point they were joined by Mr. Goodwin. “Hot House” had the two horns playing the opening and closing heads in traditional harmony, as well as solos from tenor, trumpet, and bass – the last quoting the song’s source, “What Is This Thing Called Love?” The climax was a long, baroque section in which Mr. Tabackin and Mr. Harrell exchanged overlapping phrases in a Gerry Mulligan-esque chase chorus before coming back to the melody together.

Next, Mr. Tabackin played an original song, the exotic “Desert Lady,” which commences with a big, Asian-inspired cymbal crash. This Eastern sounding, 6/4 composition is Mr. Tabackin’s favorite vehicle for his flute playing. He actually played flute before he learned saxophone, and has a rich, full timbre on the instrument. He doesn’t need to rely on shouting or distortion to achieve a distinctive sound on it, and on Wednesday night he delivered a wildly expressive solo.

The rest of the set, surprisingly, was devoted to the music of Thelonious Monk, for which Mr. Tabackin has worked out a variety of different two horn/two rhythm arrangements. The Spirit quartet played a collage that began with “Epistrophy,” then moved into the familiar fourth-interval opening of “Bemsha Swing,” which was rendered with steam-whistle honks that would have been appropriate for one of Monk’s train-inspired pieces like “Locomotive” or “Little Rootie Tootie.” After playing each of these melodies all the way through, Mr. Tabackin and Mr. Harrell lingered on “Ask Me Now.” Treating it stately and slow, they played up the melody’s similarities to “A Handful of Stars,” the pop song associated with Nat King Cole.

The climax of the opening set was Monk’s 1952 “Trinkle Tinkle.” Because both the melody and the title of the song are so tricky, it isn’t interpreted by contemporary musicians as much as it should be. Mr. Tabackin reprised an adaptation he recorded with Randy Brecker on his 1996 album “Tenority.” He and Mr. Harrell played it with boundless energy, and the piece peaked with the two horns in a no-holds-barred exchange of four-bar phrases, which we had all been waiting for them to do since the opener.

That was the scheduled ending, but the crowd wouldn’t let the band leave without an encore, so Mr. Tabackin obliged with Monk’s bebop barn-burner, “Rhythm-A-Ning.” The “I Got Rhythm” changes were subjected to as much sheer speed and excitement as in the variations by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. By 10:30 p.m., the Spirits of New York were collectively soaring.

Friday & Saturday at 9 p.m. & 11 p.m. (315 W. 44th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, 212-581-3080).