My review of Billy Hart Quartet's One is the Other, today at All About Jazz.

There's little doubt about the value of longevity and ongoing musical relationships. It's been nearly a decade since Billy Hart assembled the group that would turn out to be his longest-standing, releasing Quartet (HighNote) in 2006. But it was with 2012's All Our Reasons that the drummer moved to ECM, reaping the benefits of the label's renowned attention to detail. It's also facilitated an accelerated release rate; after a six year gap between the first two records, One is the Other comes just two years later, continuing to capitalize on the strengths and evolving chemistry of a quartet that's clearly grown up and into its own.

With compositional contributions split fairly evenly between the drummer, saxophonist Mark Turner and pianist Ethan Iverson, it also continues Hart's egalitarian bent. Iverson's biggest claim to fame has been with The Bad Plus, but it's outside the confines of that group that Iverson seems to excel. The a cappella piano solo occupying the first 105 seconds of Turner's "Lennie Groove," One is the Other's opener, is as knotty as the saxophonist's own theme when it enters around the two minute mark, doubled by Iverson, with Ben Street holding down the groove and Hart both defining the pulse alongside the bassist and tripling the melody on his kit. It's a subtle but auspicious start.

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