Miri Ben-Ari at Clark Art Institute (11/4/00)
By Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., November 5, 2000) A small audience at the Clark Art Institute heard an artist caught between two worlds on Saturday night. This seems to be the theme of Miri Ben-Ari’s career, but the twenty-something Israeli-born violinist still has plenty of time to find her way. Allegedly a classical protégé of Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern back home, Ben-Ari supposedly had an epiphany when she first heard a Charlire Parker recording at age 17. She subsequently moved to New York to study and play jazz. In New York she gained the attention of the late jazz vocalist Betty Carter, and she has also been associated with Wynton Marsalis. All good names all suggesting a regal, talented lineage.

But the Miri Ben-Ari listeners saw at the Clark was more likely the one who, according to the program, has collaborated with the likes of Dave Kikoski, Manhattan Transfer, Seal, Mariah Carey, Dallas Austin and Luther Vandross. That is to say, the more commercially-minded Ben-Ari, who let her pop leanings get the better of her and her quartet in two sets of music that to this listener’s taste were grossly banal and generic.

What’s all the more the shame is Ben-Ari and her fellow musicians are clearly talented. They have the chops, Ben-Ari in particular, and her classical and jazz training have clearly paid off in terms of her technique and versatility.

And early in the evening, Ben-Ari offered promise that an exciting concert of creative, improvisational music was in store. She kicked off the show with her composition, “Temple of Beautiful,” on which she played her violin like a horn, dragging out notes with sustain, jumping from upper to lower registers, and alternating rapid pedal points while making a melody dance on top. Her playing was dynamic and hot, and a listener could have been forgiven for overlooking the syrupy sweetness of the song’s melodic theme. As it turned out, it was that sweetness, rather than the dynamic invention, that was to color the rest of the program. The second tune was a delicate theme over a Latin rhythm, and pianist Andrew Sherman failed to grab focus during his first turn at a solo. Ben-Ari’s solo was more interesting, as she built short fillips into a fiery frenzy, playing against the rhythm and harmonic changes.

This was the height of the evening in terms of invention, but otherwise things went rapidly downhill from there. She introduced the third number, “Mr. Man,” as one of her new r&b tunes, and for the rest of the night we were stuck in pop-jazz territory, just this side of Kenny G.

At best, Ben-Ari’s playing evoked the influence of vocalists like Vandross, and perhaps jazz-minded quiet-storm singers like Natalie Cole and Anita Baker. But the “pop vibe” she admitted to in the second set, culminating in a defenseless reading of a – get this – a Janet Jackson song from “The Nutty Professor 2,” was simply beyond justification. So much talent – including drummer Marcus Baylor and six-string bassist Bill Foster -- squandered on such bland melodic gestures, just so much ear candy for the jazz-impaired.

[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Nov. 7, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]

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