Jazz Articles about Billy Hart

Bill O'Connell: Live In Montauk

by Richard J Salvucci
August 19, 2023

A rhythm section which includes Santi Debriano and Billy Hart is nothing if not part of a potential dream band. In Craig Handy, one finds a post-bop saxophonist who played with virtually everyone worth hearing over the last third of the twentieth century. For a variety of reasons pianist Bill O'Connell may be a little less well known outside the jny:New York City metropolitan area, but his signal contributions to Latin jazz with Dave Valentin, Jerry Gonzalez and Mongo Santamaria ...

Bill O'Connell: Live In Montauk

by Jack Bowers
August 17, 2023

After years of gigging in the New York City area, while honing his credentials as a first-call contemporary jazz pianist, Bill O'Connell and his family moved to Montauk, the easternmost point on Long Island, where he expressed his appreciation of the area's many wonders by recording this impressive album at the celebrated Gosman's Dock, during the annual Hamptons Jazz Festival in August 2021. It is essentially a quartet date with trumpeter Randy Brecker sitting in on two numbers, ...

Jeremy Pelt: The Art of Intimacy, Vol. 2/His Muse

by Jack Bowers
April 30, 2023

Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt's album, The Art of Intimacy, Vol. 2, is a hybrid: nearly one-half jazz quartet (quintet on one track), more than the other half quartet with strings. Strangely enough, the strings are nowhere listed on the album jacket, nor are Pelt's colleagues in his quartet. One has to read an accompanying press release from HighNote Records to learn that they are pianist Victor Gould, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Billy Hart (with guitarist Chico Pinheiro added on the ...

Billy Hart / Ethan Iverson Quartet At Blue Note JAZZMI Festival in Milan

by Roberto Cifarelli
October 22, 2022

Angelica Sanchez: Sparkle Beings

by Richard J Salvucci
August 26, 2022

A famous philosopher once said “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." This is something of a problem for a reviewer. If the music is stunning—unexpectedly so—then the logical thing is to simply write that. But then it is possible to end up end up well out of one's depth. If the rhythm section is Billy Hart and Michael Formanek, well, things simply get better as you go on from there. Angélica Sánchez is a pianist ...

David Janeway: Distant Voices

by Dan McClenaghan
October 16, 2021

In 2017 pianist David Janeway offered his Secret Passages, a trio outing featuring bassist Frank Tate and drummer Chuck Zeuren. He proves, in 2021, that he can change partners without losing an ounce of swing or even a shot glass of verve. It is Cameron Brown on bass this time out, with Billy Hart sitting in the drum chair. Both are serious, elevate-the-music guys, while Janeway continues with his sprightly cerebralism and crystalline-touch way of making music. Distant ...

Noah Haidu: Slowly: Song For Keith Jarrett

by Pierre Giroux
May 17, 2021

Birthdays are always special occasions. When one is young, the celebration is about looking towards the future. As one gets older, the occasion marks the acknowledgement of life's accomplishments. As for Slowly: Song For Keith Jarrett, the release of this title on May 7 2021 was one day before Jarrett's 76th birthday. As envisaged by pianist Noah Haidu along with his cohorts bassist Buster Williams and drummer Billy Hart the album's construct would be built around Jarrett's body of work ...