Artist

Roni Ben-Hur

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Jazz guitarist Roni Ben-Hur is renowned for his golden tone and improvisational brilliance; he plays straight-ahead jazz, Brazilian music, and other Latin styles with equal finesse. His talents were honed by his work with masters in each of those fields, notably bebop pianist Barry Harris, longtime Count Basie saxophonist and flutist Frank Wess, Brazilian jazz singer Leny Andrade, and composer-singer Marcos Valle. The eminent Village Voice jazz critic Gary Giddins called him “a limber and inventive guitarist” who “keeps the flame alive and pure, burning in every note.” The New York Times praised Roni’s “crisp, fluid style”; Time Out New York proclaimed him “a formidable and consummately lyrical guitarist.”

Born in Israel in 1962 but a longtime U.S. citizen based in the New York area, Roni has recorded nearly 20 albums as leader or co-leader. Roni’s 2023 album Love Letters (Mighty Quinn Records), featuring the renowned Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, shows off his broad scope with a repertoire that includes bebop, bossa nova, standards, and his own originals. In Hot House, George Kanzler called Love Letters “a sonically sensuous, lyrically rich quartet album.” Joseph Lang of Jersey Jazz Magazine proclaimed it “a musical love letter to those who love jazz…. Roni Ben-Hur is such a fluid player that you feel like you could keep on listening for hours.”

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