Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 10/13/2009
Guitarist
Roni Ben-Hur is clearly influenced by his mentor,
Barry Harris, and his biggest influence,
Kenny Burrell. Slowly but surely, he's breaking away from their bop-oriented persuasion to develop his own charming single-line and minimal chord melodic strategy. He's also formulating a more open-ended approach that includes his pronounced Jewish/Sephardic/Tunisian heritage and Spanish/Moorish elements. This creates separate and equal segments that speak to all of these strains that have influenced modern jazz at one time or another. With substantial help from bassist
Rufus Reid, drummer
Lewis Nash, and percussionist
Steve Kroon,
Ben-Hur has a band that literally can do no wrong, totally professional as can be. Pianist
Ronnie Mathews is also in on the proceedings and plays his heart out, albeit six months before he passed away from pancreatic cancer, and a mere month shy of his 73rd birthday.
Fortuna not only represents the good will
Ben-Hur has experienced through his career, but also is the first name of his mother, and that sentiment flows throughout the recording. One of only two originals from the pen of
Ben-Hur is the title track, mixing and matching 6/8 time with Latin music amalgamated with bop and recognizable snippets of several familiar songs.
"Guess Who" is the other new composition, a simple samba jazz-based theme where the single-line string theory comes shining through.
An outstanding read of
Billy Strayhorn's
"The Intimacy of the Blues" is covered quite well, a kick to listen to for its insistent melody, while
"A Sleepin' Bee" is much more upbeat than other versions, with an atypical arrangement activated by the tasty and enlivened
Mathews. Perhaps the most arresting selection is the classic
Isaac Albéniz romantic theme
"Granada," a dramatic and regal piano piece turned into a heightened, serene, introspective ensemble
objet d'art.
"Modinha" leads the melody written by
Vinícius de Moraes and
Antonio Carlos Jobim into subterranean caverns, with
Reid alongside
Nash shining the flashlights and
Mathews sitting out. Then there are standard ballads like
"I Got Lost in His Arms," where
Ben-Hur brings out the strummed-chord brigade, and the ultimately tender
"You Are There," again sans
Mathews and utterly beautiful, while the straight Latin take of
"Were Thine That Special Face" is a thinned-out rhumba, allowing the players to ignore the rhythms and play expanded tonic lines. The musicianship on this date is close to flawless, especially from the rhythm section, an ultimately brilliant combination that together is much larger than the sum. They inspire
Ben-Hur to do his very best on this recording that marks a pinnacle moment in his laudable career as a jazz guitarist.
Fortuna comes highly recommended, for lovers or lovers at heart.
~Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide
;)
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