Review: Billy Hart’s ‘Multidirectional’

Over the past six months, several NEA Jazz Masters – all of them octogenarian, or close to – have released records that defy convention and obliterate preconceptions many may have about their work. The combination of age and the prestige of the prestigious NEA title is an enabler. Kenny Barron issued his first vocal album, Songbook (Artwork, 2025). Gary Bartz mined R&B hits on Damage Control (OYO, 2025). George Coleman recorded with strings. For Billy “Jabali” Hart, the drummer Multidirectional (Smoke Sessions, 2025) takes inspiration from the work of John Coltrane with Rashied Ali, particularly in terms of the latter’s rhythmic unpredictability. What Hart calls “multidirectional,” Coltrane deemed “two directions at once.”

To be fair, freer playing is not new to the drummer. After all, he worked with Pharaoh Sanders in the halcyon days of Slugs’ Saloon in NYC and his work with Mwandishi is hardly straight-ahead. But, the approach seemingly took some of the other artists on the record – tenor saxophonist  Mark Turner, pianist Ethan Iverson, and bassist Ben Street – by surprise. But the veterans of Hart’s longstanding quartet have proven over the course of their own sideman and leader work that they are capable of navigating several directions at once.

The first live recording of Hart’s longstanding quartet, Multidirectional kicks off with the leader’s trademark mallets on “Song for Balkis,’ a tribute to his daughter that also opened his release, All Our Reasons (ECM, 2012).  The tune begins calmly and reflectively, before turning into controlled chaos, starting with Turner’s reaching solo. The linkage to Coltrane becomes evident on the album’s cover of the quintessential rite of passage for jazz soloists, 1960’s “Giant Steps.” Iverson begins the piece with a rather minimalist and uneasy intro that provides no solid clues to the song. Only upon Turner’s entry with the familiar melody does recognition take hold. The saxophonist solos brilliantly, escaping the trap of emulating Coltrane as so many other tenors and altoists have done in the past. That is not to say he ignores the original. Turner nods to it but doesn’t play with the ferocity or spiritual reach of Trane. His is a quieter intensity that emerges as the piece evolves. His liquid clusters keep flowing over the bass and drums. Iverson, who has done little comping following his intro, jumps in with a swinging solo while Hart’s snare beats and cymbal flourishes prod him on, to an unexpectedly abrupt close.

Turner’s “Sonnet for Stevie” is a mid-tempo swinger that appeared on Turner’s release Lathe of Heaven (ECM, 2014). It presents snippets of blues even as the song keeps shifting. The synergy between Street’s bass line and Iverson’s solo is especially noteworthy with piano notes seemingly an extension of what Street lays down. Meanwhile, Hart changes up his patterns as he pushes the pianist into more animated runs. Turner’s return puts the saxophonist’s range and dynamics on vivid display as he engages in a feisty dialogue with the leader in the last two minutes.

The most striking example of the quartet’s freeform approach is present on “Amethyst,” the title track of Hart’s album of the same name (Arabesque, 1993). There is no recognizable tempo, rhythm, or theme. Instead, the piece plays out improvisationally through Turner’s cutting, articulate lines as the rhythm section drives him forward. At times, Iverson’s comping sounds atonal, but his solo dances gleefully. The band plays with an immense level of flexibility live but, as Nate Chinen points out in the liner notes, there is no precedent for this approach in the quartet’s discography. Listen to the last minute and a half where Hart establishes a rhythmic groove even as the other quartet members insist on adhering to their own directions. Iverson’s ballad “Showdown,” which opened the quartet’s immediately preceding studio album, Just (ECM, 2025), closes the engaged set. It is a showcase for Turner’s advanced lyricism and Hart’s famed sensitive brushwork.

As with so many of his contemporary NEA Jazz Masters, Hart could easily rest on his laurels and propagate his prior works but instead remains curious and ever searching. With Thanksgiving near, we should be thankful for such masters’ continued exploratory contributions.

‘Multidirectional’ will be released on Smoke Sessions on November 21, 2025. It can be purchased on Bandcamp.

Photo credit: Desmond White