A Drummer Leads with Open Ears
Hart steps out front, letting his ensemble breathe and respond rather than follow a preset map.
First Sight opens with restless energy—Wallace Roney's trumpet and Rick Margitza's saxophone trade off over Jarmo Savolainen's sparse, deliberate piano voicings while Ron McClure anchors the bottom. It's a working band sound, not polished or precious. Hart sits behind the kit and shapes the tempo the way a quarterback calls plays, responding to what the front line offers rather than driving them forward. The ensemble pieces have room in them. No one's fighting for air.
This was Hart's first outing as a leader on record, and it's a straightforward working date—five tunes, mostly originals, recorded at a comfortable medium pace. The best moments come when the band finds its groove and stays there. Margitza's tenor work has a muscular, direct quality; Roney trades lines with genuine conversation rather than competition. Savolainen's touch on the keys keeps things from getting too heavy, especially on the slower ballad material. Hart's drumming is what you'd expect from someone who spent the early 1970s working inside Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" band—responsive, architectural, never overplaying.
This isn't a record that rewrites anything. It's a solid date by a drummer who understood that leading a group meant knowing when to hold back. The material is serviceable rather than memorable, but the playing has an ease about it that suggests mutual respect among the five players. If you're curious about Hart's voice as a bandleader rather than a sideman, this delivers exactly that—no more, no less.
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