One Is the Other

Veteran drummer Billy Hart—a member of Herbie Hancock’s well-known early-'70s sextet and many other groups—has led this quartet since 2006. The crack outfit includes tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, pianist Ethan Iverson (of The Bad Plus), and bassist Ben Street. The group's third album—2014’s One Is the Other—opens with “Lennie Groove,” a piece penned by Turner that draws inspiration from the work of late pianist Lennie Tristano. The track starts with a speedy unaccompanied statement by Iverson before his bandmates join in to tackle this tricky and entrancing composition. Iverson’s "Maraschino” has a different vibe; it’s a heady blues colored by Hart’s inventive brushes. Hart dazzles on his own composition, “Amethyst,” an intriguing piece that develops in interesting ways. The contrast between Turner and Hart is compelling throughout, and Ivers and Street are excellent. One Is the Other’s only standard, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Some Enchanted Evening,” finds Turner intoning the famous melody—and nicely improvising on it—as Hart creates a quiet thicket of sounds on his trap kit.