Drummer Billy Hart started off in the 1960s bands of Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery, then contributed to such jazz milestones as Herbie Hancock's early-1970s experimental post-Brew Mwandishi and Charles Lloyd's 1980s comeback ECM groups. He has developed a very personal language, one in which the fluid, textural, post-free jazz approach to drums has organically merged with its traditional swing role. Formed in 2003, the quartet was originally billed as the Ethan Iverson-Mark Turner Quartet until Hart got the nod to make it his own and in 2005 the quartet recorded a debut for High Note in between occasional dates at the Village Vanguard. This is the follow-up and its very high quality stems from its peculiar mix of personalities. The writing is mainly Hart's with contributions from pianist Ethan Iverson, whose profile as a NYC scenester has been on the rise in a quieter period for The Bad Plus. Iverson sounds on top form and in the right space through the album. The much admired, imaginatively ascetic contemporary cool school saxophonist Mark Turner and bassist Ben Street likewise. There's nods to Coltrane that don't sound much like Coltrane: on Iverson's imaginative pared-down version of Coltrane's ‘Giant Steps’, and faint echoes of the classic modal model appear also in Hart's ‘Song for Balkis’ and ‘Tolli's Dance’. Warmer winds blow in on Turner's ‘Nigeria’, the kind of sensuous post-boppish ballad that might remind Hart of his stint in the 1970s with Stan Getz while ‘Imke's March’ with Hart's whistled theme is real cheery stuff. Beyond its softly meditative, spatially-aware ECM aesthetic, this is a challenging session infused with the strong characters of its personnel. A real jazz recording that doesn't sound like a similar version of what's gone before is hard to find, but this is definitely one.