(For my birthday we had a four night trip to Amsterdam recently and discovered a very vibrant jazz scene and had a great time going to some venues - Ron Ainsborough.)
Part 1 - Bimhuis. Billy Hart Quartet - All Our Reasons. (November 23).
Billy Hart - Drums, Ethan Iverson - Piano (also plays for Bad Plus) Ben Street - Bass, Mark Turner - Tenor Sax
The 'Bimhuis' concert hall is a fantastic venue which has world/jazz music on most weeks Wednesday through to Sunday. It has 225 seats with standing room for 150 with great acoustics. On concert nights it also has a top class restaurant open which has a quality menu well worth sampling, which we did of course.
The concert was in two sets of about one hour each,and the Quartet featured their latest CD 'All Our Reasons'. Hart, Iverson and Turner are all featured as composers. Material includes a modern blues; a Coltrane tribute, 'Ohnedaruth' based on 'Giant Steps'; an Iverson-penned homage to Paul Bley, titled 'Nostalgia for the Impossible'; a Hart tune 'Duchess'; and Turner's 'Nigeria' If you check out the CD you will find the playlist. Whilst the music was 'contemporary/modern' it still retained (with one 'almost free form' exception) the essentials, as far as my musical tastes are concerned of 'rhythm, harmony, and melody'.The concert was performed to very high standards with outstanding solo's by all, which of course featured the great Billy Hart giving nothing less than a master class in drumming throughout the whole of the concert, he is up there with the best without a doubt. Drum solos I find sometimes can be difficult to retain my interest for very long, but with Billy Hart there was no way that could happen he is brilliant. This is not to say the other members of the quartet did not impress, far from it, they were also top drawer. A concert to be remembered and not to be missed.
Ron Ainsborough.
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