2009-12-01
Jazz Journal International by Mark Gardner - Review
With great feeling, taste and his impeccable easy swing, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur leads an immaculate quartet,
RONI-BEN HUR FORTUNA REVIEW in Jazz Journal International , December 2009
With great feeling, taste and his impeccable easy swing, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur leads an immaculate quartet, occasionally expanded to accommodate Steve Kroon’s supplementary percussion. The influences within Roni’s conception include strands of Sephardic, Moorish and Spanish music, but he also is in sympathy with Afro-Cuban and Brazilian sounds. All those elements are to be found within this well turned programme, but they are subservient to his over-riding jazz approach. Ben-Hur, a protégé of bop guru Barry Harris, has a beautiful touch on the guitar and his performances here are, as ever, beautifully shaded. The session has extra interest in that the guitarist was once again partnered by the excellent pianist Ronnie Mathews, making probably his last recorded appearance because six months after the date he died from pancreatic cancer. Mathews plays some memorable solos, and integrates his lines with the leader’s to stunning effect. Bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Lewis Nash supply the ideal rhythmic cushion for
the two chordal instruments. This set has two of Roni’s tunes, Fortuna, dedicated to his mother, and
Guess Who. Elsewhere he deals eloquently with pieces by Strayhorn, Mandel, Porter, Jobim, Arlen, Berlin
and Porter – tackling each from a personal perspective, ensuring a recital that is free of superficiality and
goes to the heart of the music. I wouldn’t want to be without this one.
Mark Gardner
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