Billy Hart Quartet - One Is The Other (2014) [Official Digital Download 24/88]

The second ECM album by the Billy Hart Quartet is a major musical statement, and one of the outstanding jazz albums of the season. Strong compositions – by leader-drummer Hart, tenorist Mark Turner and pianist Ethan Iverson – reflect upon a wide swathe of the music’s history, and are distinguished by vivid and imaginative solos and wonderful interplay. A basic premise, that this should be a band in which the vastly-experienced Billy Hart gets to play everything he wants to play, has led to a sense of almost unlimited possibility for all participants. There is freedom and joy in this music, and tenderness, too, not least in the set’s sole standard, a beautifully played version of “Some Enchanted Evening”.

The Billy Hart Quartet's One Is the Other follows All Our Reasons, its noted debut for ECM, by less than two years. In one sense, this set shows the group's growth (they've been together since 2005), and picks up where AOR left off, but more importantly, it reveals the more disciplined and inquisitive dimension of its collective persona, even as it revisits some tunes from its members' pasts. Opener "Lennie's Groove," by saxophonist Mark Turner, was recorded much earlier in Turner's career. Due to its complex harmonic and rhythmic components, it has subsequently become a workout classic for other jazz musicians. Pianist Ethan Iverson attacks the knotty lyric as if simultaneously playing all the dubbed parts of an unreleased tune from Lennie Tristano's Descent Into the Maelstrom. As Turner enters, he twins these lines before moving toward Iverson contrapuntally. Ben Street's bassline reveals the bridge between the bop and post-bop in the exercise while Hart shifts gears in tandem, accenting the ever-shifting meter. On Iverson's "Maraschino," the blues are the entryway into collective improvisation that remains commonly focused. Hart's brushes not only accent and color the front line's flourishes, but offer a map back to the center. The drummer's "Amethyst" was the title piece of one of his earlier albums but is revisioned somewhat here. Its original melody – which retains its lyric beauty – is made more blocky here, Turner first, then Iverson, find its dark undercurrent. Hart rolls and breaks around their dialogue. Street engages as an interlocutor and interpreter, while Hart allows the three to dictate his fluid, articulate movements as the tune opens. Turner's "Sonnet for Stevie" may be written for Stevie Wonder, but it's fueled more by restraint, color, and texture than funk or R&B. Street's opening bassline and the clipped rolls by Hart introduce a bluesy head, with Iverson extrapolating on them. He finds a lithe lyric inside and begins to slowly bring it out. Group statements remain brief on each chorus until Iverson's solo finds the seam, and his upper register chord voicings become bell-like. Turner sticks close to the blues, while Hart breaks on them in a painterly fashion. One Is the Other is the sound of an experienced and deeply intuitive quartet speaking in a colorful and precise language comprised of numerous dialects and approaches to musical speech.

Tracklist:

01 - Lennie Groove
02 - Maraschino
03 - Teule's Redemption
04 - Amethyst
05 - Yard
06 - Sonnet for Stevie
07 - Some Enchanted Evening
08 - Big Trees

Produced by Manfred Eicher. Engineered by James A. Farber.
Recorded in April/May 2013 at Avatar Studios, New York, NY.

Musicians:
Billy Hart - drums
Mark Turner - tenor saxophone
Ethan Iverson - piano
Ben Street - double bass


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