Review: Multidirectional by Billy Hart Quartet
Originally published in Downbeat Magazine, January 2025 issue. Download the digital issue here.
From the very first notes of Multidirectional, the first live recording by drummer Billy Hart and his longstanding quartet, the shared energy between band and audience is palpable. What makes this live record stand out from their studio work is the way they play with a newfound looseness and expansiveness, embodying the album title.
One of the most cohesive working bands in jazz, the quartet achieves a rare elasticity here. Hart’s effortless artistry and soulful rhythms are well-matched by Ben Street’s compelling bass. Together they form a formidable rhythm section that propels Ethan Iverson’s lyrical piano and Mark Turner’s sinewy tenor saxophone.
Multidirectional transforms the quartet’s familiar material into living, shifting forms. On “Song For Balkis,” which first appeared in the quartet’s 2012 album All Our Reasons, Hart’s opening solo is assured and arresting in its simplicity, giving way to his distinctive rhythmic drive. Next, the quartet add their own flavor of free improvisation to the Coltrane classic “Giant Steps” through Iverson’s intervallic piano and Turner’s multilayered, polyphonic sax. On “Amethyst,” the title track from a 1993 release, Hart’s full force rhythmic drive amps up Iverson’s dramatic piano flourishes and Turner’s robust, muscular lines. The set concludes with Iverson’s “Showdown,” an introspective bluesy ballad from the quartet’s most recent studio outing, Just. Hart and Street’s smoky, relaxed interplay gives way to a reflective duet between Iverson and Turner.
At age 85, Hart remains at the vanguard of rhythmic invention, and his quartet’s ability to listen and respond with a deep interconnectedness is inimitable.
Multidirectional: Song For Balkis; Giant Steps; Sonnet For Stevie; Amethyst; Showdown. (47:05)
Personnel: Mark Turner, tenor saxophone; Ethan Iverson, piano; Ben Street, bass; Billy Hart, drums.
Ordering info: smokesessionsrecords.com
