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 its life as a performance in honor of Hart’s 80th 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 to convince all involved that it should be released.

Two years later, the trio has reconvened, this time fully cognizant that they were going to record an album at Sear Sound Studios in NYC. Due out October 20, 2023, via Smoke Sessions Records, the captivating Bridges 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.

“We have so many concurrent and urgent issues now on this planet,” Hays explains, “We need to start making allies where we’ve only seen adversaries. Whether that’s on a global, interpersonal, or intrapsychic level, we need to set out to repair any number of misunderstandings and seemingly intractable polarizations if we are to survive and thrive here as a community.”

1. Butterfly
2. Capricorn
3. Song for Peace
4. With a Little Help from My Friends
5. Row Row Row
6. Throughout
7. Irah
8. Bridges (Travessia)

Produced by Paul Stache and Damon Smith, and recorded live in New York at Sear Sound’s Studio C on a Sear-Avalon custom console at 96KHz/24bit and mixed to 1/2″ analog tape, the album opens on the veritably glistening Hays cut Butterfly and then pay tribute to the late, great Wayne Shorter on the stoically enchanting Capricorn and then brings us Hays’ beautiful ballad Song for Peace and then we get the free flowing, dutiful rendition of the Beatles classic With a Little Help from My Friends.

Along next is the third original from Hays, the shimmering Row Row Row and that is in turn backed by their reflective rendition of guitarist Bill Frisell’s Throughout, the recording rounding out on the dulcet grooves found within Hart’s Irah, coming to a close on their ornate version of a piece by the great Brazilian singer and songwriter Milton Nascimento, the titular Bridges (Travessia).

Official Purchase Link

www.kevinhays.com

www.billyhartmusic.com