CD review: Roni Ben-Hur
CHUCK GRAHAM
Tucson Citizen

"Keepin' It Open" (Motéma Music) Grade: A Genre: Straight ahead jazz
The bebop drummer Artt Frank turned me on to this jazz guitarist from Israel. Roni Ben-Hur has been working the lyrical side of New York City streets since he arrived in 1985 at the impressionable age of 22. He was attracted to the sound of the older musicians in town, the ones who played with their hearts, not their heads. As Ben-Hur says in the album's liner notes, "They showed me how it is not just about chords and
scales and music theory. They were able to show me how to forget about that and remember the music."

Ben-Hur is most influenced by Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell and Grant Green, playing with a crystal clean tone capable of sounding sad-eyed and reflective one minute, bebopping all over the next. But in every mood is that understated elegance we associate with good taste.

Maybe those barbarians are at the gates, but they won't be coming inside this jazz club. Ben-Hur has surrounded himself with five like-minded players who join him in various combinations. They are Jeremy Pelt, trumpet; Santi DeBriano, bass; Ronnie Matthews, piano; Lewis Nash, drums; and Steve Kroon,
percussion.

The 10 tracks range from the ballad "Indian Summer" to the softly Latin "Like A Lover," the Spanish hearttugger "Andaluza" to Thelonious Monk's "Think Of One."