Billy Hart
All Our Reasons
Release Date: Mar 27, 2012
Genre(s): Jazz, Pop/Rock, Post-Bop
Record label: ECM
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Album Review: All Our Reasons by Billy Hart
Excellent, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
In 2003, this group was called the Ethan Iverson/Mark Turner Quartet. Master drummer Billy Hart asked if he could borrow the band's name as his own for a show in his hometown of Montclair, New Jersey. The other members -- who also include bassist Ben Street -- voted to name it for him permanently. They recorded their well-received Quartet for High Note in 2005, and have played together live whenever schedules permit.
Based on rating 4/5
This nine year-old occasional quartet, nominally led by former Miles Davis and Charles Lloyd drummer Billy Hart, includes a young saxophonist growing in stature, Mark Turner, and Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson. If it has any affinities, they might be with Charles Lloyd's quartet, or the late Paul Motian's obliquely grooving groups. A sparingly present but incisive Iverson often plays solos that don't sound like jazz, while former Charles Lloyd drummer Billy Hart and bassist Ben Street appear to float (Motian-like) while driving the pulse.
Opinion: Fantastic
A gem from the ECM label, and one of the best jazz LPs of 2012 so far. Peter Marsh 2012 The band on this recording has been together since 2003, and were initially known as the Ethan Iverson/Mark Turner Quartet, before becoming the Billy Hart Quartet a couple of years later. Though this is the kind of thing that gives compilers of internet discographies and the like sleepless nights, it's a reflection of Hart's standing as one of the most thoughtful and accomplished drummers still working.
Opinion: Excellent
BILLY HART “All Our Reasons” (ECM) The drummer Billy Hart has had a richly peripatetic jazz career, coming into his own during a period of headlong flux — the searching or soul-fortified post-bop of the 1960s, the intrepid hybrids of the ’70s — and approaching each situation with an enlightened but earthy grace. Better known as a sideman than as a leader, despite some fine work, he now gives us something too strong to underestimate: “All Our Reasons,” the marvelous new album by his quartet. It’s a long-running band originally convened under the joint leadership of its tenor saxophonist, Mark Turner, and its pianist, Ethan Iverson.
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