Gene Bertoncini/Roni Ben-Hur Harlem in the Himalayas
Friday April 24, 2009 @ 7:00 PM
$18.00 in advance / $20.00 day of
Member Price: $16.20
SOLD OUT
Master guitarists Gene Bertoncini and Roni Ben-Hur's reduce their Lincoln Center duet performances and their Smile recording to an even purer form: an acoustic listening experience.
"The combination of two guitars is more than the sum of its parts," writes Gitler in his liner notes for the recording project. "The chordal aspects are many; there are percussive possibilities; and, of course, the singing melodies of the single lines. When you factor in two such en rapport artists as Bertoncini and Ben-Hur the results are sublime."
Gene Bertoncini, known as the 'Segovia' of jazz guitar, has a thriving solo career and has played on hundreds of recordings by such artists as Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Hubert Laws. This is his first return to RMA since the first season of Harlem in the Himalayas in 2006. An eloquent and versatile improviser, Mr. Bertoncini has been heard with an extraordinary range of jazz greats, including performances and recordings with Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Wayne Shorter, Hubert Laws, and Paul Desmond among others, as well as such distinguished singers as Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Nancy Wilson, Vic Damone, and Eydie Gorme. Bertoncini honed his professional chops as a member of the Tonight Show band during Johnny Carson's tenure, and he has worked with composers and arrangers such as Lalo Schifrin and Michael Legrand as well with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. In addition to an active performing and recording schedule, Gene teaches at the Eastman School of Music and William Patterson University.
Respected internationally as one of the elite jazz players, Roni Ben-Hur has recorded six albums as a leader and has been a key band member for such jazz luminaries as Barry Harris, Chris Anderson, Rufus Reid, Walter Booker, Jimmy Heath, Clark Terry, Slide Hampton and Etta Jones. His Mel-Bay instructional book, Talk Jazz Guitar, has established him as a top jazz guitar guru. Ben-Hur fell in love with jazz in his native land of Israel. He moved to New York City in 1985, and by the 1998 release of Sofia's Butterfly, he received the title "Best New Artist" in the Jazziz Annual Reader's poll, and his 2001's bop-oriented Anna's Dance was selected by award-winning critic Gary Giddins as "One of The Best Jazz CD's of 2001." Ben-Hur's 2004 outing, Signature was a critical sensation that firmly established his singular voice as a composer and band leader and led to his new recording home, Motema Music, where he released Keepin' it Open in 2007, to unanimous critical acclaim.
