Bridges

Pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Billy Hart reunite for a second, scintillating trio date Bridges, featuring original compositions by Hays and Hart with classics by Wayne Shorter, Bill Frisell, The Beatles, and Milton Nascimento

Hays Street Hart, the trio of pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Ben Street, and legendary drummer Billy Hart, recorded their acclaimed 2021 debut, All Things Are, under less than optimal conditions. The album began life as a performance in honor of Hart’s 80^th birthday in December 2020, live-streamed from an empty Smoke Jazz Club in the final weeks of that grueling pandemic year. Despite those adversities, the music they created that night was spectacular enough that it had to be released.

A few years later, they reconvened in the studio, to record the captivating, Bridges, which brilliantly spotlights the unique chemistry and shared spirit of exploration that emerged fully formed on that initial impromptu session. The title succinctly hints at some of the reasons why Hays, Street, and Hart work so well together: this is a trio that bridges generations, certainly, as well as a wealth of diverse experience and inspiration. But it also sums up a mutual desire to bring people together through music.

Bridges was recorded after a weeks-long European tour performing this repertoire. Perhaps what’s most remarkable about the album is not that Hays, Street, and Hart play so masterfully together – with three artists of their caliber, who could expect any less? – but that this second outing maintains the bold spirit of inquisitiveness and spontaneity that its predecessor naturally possessed. Credit that to a trio perpetually determined to discover new bridges worth building.