Label: Ropeadope Records, 2021
Personnel - Ariel Bart: harmonica; Mayu Shviro: cello; Moshe Elmakias: piano; David Michaeli: double bass; Amir Bar Akiva: drums.
The up-and-coming Israeli harmonica player and composer Ariel Bart has been getting noticed not only through salient New York collaborations - with the trombonist Steve Swell on his album The Center Will Hold (2020) and the bassist William Parker on Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World (2021) - but also with her personal work. Wedding European jazz tradition and Middle Eastern particularities, In Between, her debut record, is more straightforward than oblique, showing the bandleader’s adherence to balmy musical contexts.
“Spiritual Wars” resulted in a gentle undulating flow permeated with beautiful folk melody. The harmonica commands our attention during the warmhearted improvisation, and then it’s the piano that colors things nicely before the mild effervescence of the snare drum becomes salient.
Bart is consistently expressive on “Colors Palette”, deserving a comparison with Toots Thielemans as she rides the crest of involving harmonic waves sustained by an attractive rhythm.
“Stranger on the Hill”, an emotion-filled waltz expressed with a mature language, includes sublime moments of multiphonic harmonica, pedaling and arco bass, and resolute percussion. In turn, the lulling “Deep Down”, equally coping with a triple meter, is concise, melodic and soulful.
Mayu Shviro introduces the title cut with unaccompanied cello, and that song concludes the album as a smooth, somewhat yearning Middle Eastern reflection in five.
In Between is the vehicle that transports us to Bart’s personal sonic world. It might not have the immediate thrills of the avant-garde scene but follows a coherent line of thought, signaling a promising future for her in the jazz universe.
Grade B
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Spiritual Wars ► 02 - Colors Palette ► 03 - Stranger on the Hill