Love Is (Steeplechase)
John Hart
Released January 10, 2025
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k4C8tb1oZhomdV7m_elvEByAcLne95kIc
Spotify:
About:
Producer Nils Winther suggested John Hart break from his typical trio setup by removing the drummer and replacing them with a cornet. This created a “refreshing” and “unusual” guitar/cornet/bass interaction. While bassist Carlo DeRosa is a long-time collaborator, Hart and cornetist Kirk Knuffke had never met or played together until a short rehearsal immediately preceding the recording session.
Hart composed or arranged several tracks specifically for this sparse instrumentation:
“Infamy” – A blues piece described as “sparse and angular” with an active, driving bass line.
“Blue in Green” – Features a distinct arrangement where the cornet plays over a specific guitar ostinato.
“Lazy Thirds” – A John Hart original modeled after John Coltrane’s “Lazy Bird,” noted for its complex chord changes.
“Love Is” – A contrafact based on the standard “You Don’t Know What Love Is”.
Reviews highlight a “dreamy, digressive quality” to the standards, comparing Hart’s refined style to guitarists like Randy Napoleon and the late Vic Juris. Jazz Journal described Hart as a player of “refinement and taste” with a “swinging gait”.
Track Listing:
1. Hallucination (Bud Powell) 6:33
2. Infamy (John Hart) 6:41
3. A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing (Billy Strayhorn) 8:51
4. Love Is (John Hart) 8:14
5. Blue In Green (Bill Evans) 6:25
6. Pee Wee (Tony Williams) 4:09
7. Lazy Thirds (John Hart) 5:01
8. Never Let Me Go (Jerry Livingston / Ray Evans) 6:53
9. Be My Love (Nicholas Brodszky) 6:58
10. I Thought About You (Jimmy Van Heusen) 9:04
Personnel:
John Hart: guitar
Carlos DeRosa: bass
Kirk Knuffke: cornet
Recorded December 2023, by Chris Sulit
Photography by Chris Drukker
Produced, Mixed and Mastered by Nils Winther
Review:
The guitarist John Hart finds himself in an unusual trio setting here, accompanied only by bassist Carlo DeRosa and cornetist Kirk Knuffke. The results are perhaps more subdued though no less swinging than any of Hart’s five previous SteepleChase outings. The rapport between Hart and Knuffke in their first-ever meeting is apparent from the outset. They spin tight unisons on the tricky head to Bud Powell’s “Hallucination” while DeRosa sets the pace with walking bass lines. And when Hart launches into his solo on this bop staple, with neither the rhythmic support of drums or any chordal instrument, it becomes an intimate duet with bass that showcases the guitarist’s improvisational gifts. And he responds with the elegance and flair of a Jimmy Raney before engaging in some rapid-fire exchanges with Knuffke on this harmonically intriguing tune. Though Knuffke may affect an old-school sound on cornet, his more provocative instincts come to the fore on Hart’s originals like the angular “Infamy,” “Lazy Thirds” (based on John Coltrane’s “Lazy Bird”) and the intricate title track (a fidgety contrafact on “You Don’t Know What Love Is”). Other highlights include a gorgeous meditation on Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing,” an inventive 5/4 reading of Bill Evans’ “Blue in Green” and a dreamy take on Tony Williams’ shadowy waltz, “Pee Wee.” They close in relaxed, swinging fashion on Jimmy Van Heusen’s “I Thought About You,” with Hart and Knuffke conjuring up memories of Ruby Braff trading off bluestinged licks with George Barnes.
Bill Milkowski (DownBeat)
