The Most Beautiful Sounds Next to Silence

This is a magnificent album from a group whose shared experience span two decades. Of course, the drummer’s own experience goes back more than that having begun his professional career in 1958; and in that time played in a variety of different styles that fall under the music we call jazz.

That this is Hart’s band is never under any shadow of doubt as the drummer’s influence is heard and felt throughout each and composition, whoever may claim composer credits. With no sense of the bombast or feeling the need to make his presence felt, Hart is very much present purely in the strength, subtly and sheer musicality of his playing.

Whether laying down a straight ahead accompaniment to Ethan Iverson’s ‘Aviation’ the music is never forced along by the drummer, but the overall impression is that he carefully steering the members of the quartet along a course that brings out the best in the material and the moment. A masterclass in understatement is Hart’s use of brishes on the following ‘Chamber Music’ that is another Iverson composition that has the quartet floating gently in a considered and genuine four way dialogue.

The breadth and diversity of the music is only matched by the manner in which the Quartet give the set a feeling of completeness. There is no sense that the programme is too varied and lacking in focus as the Quartet sound is too readily identifiable, and elicits a facility that permits jumps in mood and feeling from the swaggering blues of ‘South Hampton’ to Mark Turner’s exquisite ‘Billy’s Waltz’, or by the same composer the freely expressive ‘Bo Brussels’, that throws the saxophonist’s own playing into stark contrast to the inherent lyricism that he brings to the rest of the album.

The elasticity of the playing of bassist Ben Street, Ethan Iverson’s lithe piano lines and the sinewy sound and delivery of Mark Turner provide some powerful interplay and solos then this is more than matched by the 84 year old Billy Hart. His opening statement on ‘Top of the Middle’ is a delight, and he brings his mastery to bear on the reimagining of two of his own compositions on the evocative ‘Layla Joy’ and ‘Naaj’ that has a barely concealed latent power that threatens and threatens to break free at any moment. By keeping a firm grasp on the direction of the music from the drum kit, the leader guides this piece in a most gratifying manner.

Hart says that he likes a ‘multi-directional’ sound approach, and this he achieves on Just with a sixth sense on how to guide the music without getting in the way of its natural progression. And by doing so, lets the magic happen.

(https://jazzviews.net)