Master drummer Billy Hart is leading his killer quartet with pianist Ethan Iverson, saxophonist Mark Turner and bassist Ben Street (L-R in Jim Eigo’s photo, above) through Sunday night at Iridium in midtown Manhattan. I reviewed this group at the Village Vanguard in April 2006 (go here, scroll down), and caught it again in the last night’s late set.

Once more I was struck by the variety, complexity, personality and power of this group’s playing. Turner uncorks fragmented narratives with unflappable poise and a master’s patience. Iverson tosses off some of the knottiest harmonies you’ll find in a more-or-less mainstream setting, not to show off but to provide his bandmates with limitless choices. (One solo culminated with a line that tumbled down to the bottom of the keyboard; Iverson let the momentum carry him still further, right off the stage.) Street is the band’s center of gravity; Hart pushes, stretches, fragments and shifts the time while never losing the thread.

When you go, pay special attention to Hart’s spoken introductions. At first, I thought these gnomic pronouncements were some sort of random performance poetry. After a while, I realized that he was providing clues. For instance: "What in the world would the world do without Wayne Shorter?" was the introduction to Shorter’s "Dance Cadaverous," while "So it could have been a fairy tale… but it’s a country" prefaced the smoking set closer, "Airegin." (Read the title backward if it’s unfamiliar.)

I’m still scratching my head, I confess, over a reference to Santa Claus before the set’s second tune, and I can’t decipher the introduction to the fourth tune ("She was the daughter of the dutchess"), either. Someone, probably Iverson, will e-mail me the solutions to these puzzles, I’m sure. Meanwhile, if Hart ever gets tired of playing — hopefully never — I think he might just have a bright future with the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Playlist:

Eliane Radigue – Chry-ptus (Schoolmap)

Sachiko M – Salon de Sachiko (Hitorri/Improvised Music from Japan)

Genesis – Live, Seconds Out and Three Sides Live (Atlantic)

Napalm Death – Death by Manipulation (Earache)

Lamb of God – As the Palaces Burn (Prosthetic)

Radiohead – Kid A and Amnesiac (Capitol)

Eliane Radigue – Chry-ptus (Archive.org stream — part of a 1980 interview with Radigue broadcast by KPFA-FM; props to Give Me Take You for pointing it out.)