All Our Reasons (ECM)
Billy Hart
Released March 27, 2012
2012 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll Best New Albums
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About:
The quartet heard here was formed in 2003, and originally billed as the Ethan Iverson/Mark Turner Quartet. When Billy Hart asked if it could be his band for a gig in his hometown of Montclair, New Jersey, the other members unanimously voted to give it him permanently. As the Billy Hart Quartet, the four musicians have continued to play a number of dates each year, often at New York’s Village Vanguard. In 2005 the group recorded a well-received debut album for hard-bop label High Note. Since then, as Ethan Iverson notes, the music has become more free and spacious, qualities that fit well with ECM’s priorities. “All Our Reasons” was recorded in June 2011 at New York’s Avatar Studios, with Manfred Eicher producing.
Billy Hart, of course, is no stranger to ECM, first recording for the label in 1974, with Bennie Maupin on the classic “Jewel In The Lotus”. For ten years a member of the Charles Lloyd Quartet, he can be heard on Lloyd’s “The Call”, “All My Relations”, “Canto” and “Lift Every Voice” – influential albums all. Tenorist Mark Turner guested with Enrico Rava on “New York Days” in 2008, also recording with the Fly trio in that year on “Sky And Country” (a second Fly disc is in preparation). Pianist Iverson and bassist Ben Street make their first ECM appearances with “All Our Reasons”.
Billy Hart, Ethan Iverson and Mark Turner are all featured as composers on “All Our Reasons”. Hart’s “Song for Balkis” begins the programme with an evocative drum solo, with Billy in freer mode, loosely swinging but also with a roiling sense of unpredictability which engages his fellow players – each of whom plays differently, and often rather beautifully – in this context. Mark Turner says of playing with Hart: “I feel I have more trust in myself and more trust in the beat than I would in other situations, and it has helped me grow a lot as a musician.”
“Ohnedaruth” was the spiritual name adopted by John Coltrane. Ethan Iverson’s homage re-works his “Giant Steps”: The opening piano salvo has left and right hands in utter de-synchrony (Iverson’s description), like a player-piano gone awry. When the tenor trio takes over, the original changes are barely perceivable through a web of delayed resolutions and unexpected voice-leading, but the emotional feeling remains close to Trane.
“Toli’s Dance” is a modern blues composition by Billy. After a fanfare for piano trio, Hart initiates an undulating funk beat. Turner devours the complex harmonic atmosphere in a soaring solo, and the piano responds with simple chimes, morning bells at the end of the party.
“Nostalgia for the Impossible” has several uncanny moments of free harmony between Iverson and Street. Iverson grew up on records Paul Bley made for ECM and perhaps this performance is a kind of tribute.
The gently loping Hart tune “Duchess” was previously recorded on his “Oshumare” album (Gramavision). Street works closely with Hart here to shape each new rhythmic feel into a distinctive statement while Iverson and Turner take melodic fragments and spin them about.
Mark Turner’s “Nigeria” takes off from “Airegin”, Sonny Rollins’s much-covered composition (which was inspired originally by Nigerian dancers, and premiered on Milt Jackson’s “Bags’ Groove”). Turner’s capacity for high-speed improvising on chord changes at top speed is facilitated by the quick reflexes of Ben Street: a master-class in subtle listening.
“Wasteland” is a through-composed piece by Turner learned in the studio especially for this recording. The only improvised sections are the introductory saxophone cadenza and the drum interludes. “Old Wood”, meanwhile, is an improvisation originally intended to introduce another piece. The title comes from Iverson’s pleasure in an exceptional Steinway.
Finally, Hart’s “Imke’s March” begins and ends with a whistled melody Billy used to call his daughter in from the playground. When the band gets going Hart stays active on the snare, continuing the march theme. Iverson’s casual solo incorporates trademark diatonicism and motivic development.
Track Listing:
1. Song For Balkis (Billy Hart) 12:50
2. Ohnedaruth (Ethan Iverson) 06:03
3. Tolli’s Dance (Billy Hart) 05:27
4. Nostalgia For The Impossible (Ethan Iverson) 05:51
5. Duchess (Billy Hart) 06:29
6. Nigeria (Mark Turner) 07:52
7. Wasteland (Mark Turner) 07:08
8. Old Wood (Ethan Iverson) 01:42
9. Imke’s March (Billy Hart) 05:48
Personnel:
Billy Hart: drums
Ethan Iverson: piano
Mark Turner: tenor saxophone
Ben Street: double bass
Recorded June 2011, at Avatar Studios, New York, by James A. Farber
Assistant Engineer: Fernando Lodeiro
Cover Photo: Peter Neusser
Design: Sascha Kleis
Producer: Manfred Eicher
Review:
Drummer Billy Hart’s current quartet lineup has been together since 2003, working steadily for most of that time; All Our Reasons, however, is only their second album (and first for ECM). It follows their 2005 debut, Quartet, a rhythmically forthright effort that succeeded on a blend of bebop and free aesthetics substantially informed by the work of Keith Jarrett’s American quartet. But while its members – Hart, pianist Ethan Iverson, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and bassist Ben Street – have kept busy recording with other projects, this band has spent six years developing in studio silence.
That gap is an important consideration when examining All Our Reasons. The sophomore recording is so different from its predecessor that it’s hard to believe they’re by the same ensemble. Both echo the abstraction of Jarrett’s American quartet, which both Iverson and Turner have often cited as an inspiration. But where Quartet found earthiness in that abstraction, Reasons homes in on its ethereal aspects, rendering nine sublime, ruminative tracks that are as stark and atmospheric as the cover photograph, an arty shot of the Empire State Building that is quintessentially ECM.
In addition, its main thrust is not rhythm but melody. Iverson and Turner, who share composing duties with Hart (with three and two pieces, respectively), have considerable tune-crafting skills, with Turner’s spacious ballad “Wasteland” and midtempo jaunt “Duchess” being especially memorable. More important, both have a tender touch on their instrument, lifting the tunes from merely melodic to sumptuously so. For example, “Nostalgia for the Impossible” – Iverson’s tribute to Paul Bley – is all strange angles and gravitas, with free rhythm and harmonic concavities baffling the situation even more. Yet Turner approaches the tune with airiness, playing his tenor in the alto register such that his lines seem to float like a feather over Iverson’s craggy-but-sweet piano. They also find charms in the already playful closer, Hart’s “Imke’s March,” doubling on the theme with soft edges to each of their tones before Iverson tweaks warmth out of his own dissonant, somewhat disjointed lines.
Hart is a defining presence on each of the nine tracks, though he isn’t necessarily a timekeeper: There isn’t a one-beat to be found on “Nostalgia” or the opening “Song for Balkis,” and Iverson and Street (who generally operates at a near-subliminal level, even by bassists’ standards) hold the pulse on “Wasteland.” On these – and even on pieces like “Duchess,” where the swing is undeniable – Hart acts as a colorist. He taps at the ride cymbal on “Duchess” as though it were a crash, creating an effect not unlike little waves on a shore, and then accentuating that effect with the actual crash cymbal. On “Balkis,” he fanfares the album with sonorous mallets on the toms, and slaps at the snare with brushes on “Ohnedaruth.”
Yet he is also as profound a melodist as either Iverson or Turner. His composition “Tolli’s Dance” is built on two equally savory sections. The first, a flamenco vamp led by Iverson, is punctuated by a stately two-bar drum pattern that Hart plays identically each time-a melodic vamp in its own right-followed by a second, livelier construction that introduces the tune’s sinuous second section. “Nigeria,” meanwhile, dispenses of its head lightning-quick, so as to give Hart a three-minute solo in which he teases the cymbals, rattles the snare and rims and prods the toms, formulating and developing songlike ideas with an almost orchestral texture.
All Our Reasons is a splendid recording, superior to Quartet-if it’s fair to apply that comparison to such different beasts. The quartet’s evolution is breathtaking, if sadly under-documented; let there be no such intervals between this album and the next one.
Michael J. West (JazzTimes)
