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Artist & Where

Name: Ben Azar
City/Place: Herzliya
Country: Israel

Current News

What's Up? I do sessions in and out of my studio, teach private and online lessons and write my own music.

Life & Work

Bio: Ben Azar represents a new breed of ultra-versatile guitar players and musicians which derives their ideas, style and taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.

A former New Yorker and now Israeli-based. Ben's career drifts from playing and touring as a side-man with established rock acts, such as guitar legend Marty Friedman (Megadeath, Cacophony) and Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal (Guns n Roses), playing gospel (Hill Of The Lord Ministries in Brooklyn) to playing a verity of pop and ethnic/Middle-Eastern styles with local Israeli superstars, and of-course playing jazz concerts as a side man and as a leader with his group.

Ben's unique approach to music can be heard on his debut album "Organized Memories" (2011) which was released on Greg Osby's label, INNER CIRCLE Music. With his jazz guitar-based trio, his music reflects diverse influences and features intricate and lyrical compositions with a modern approach to improvisation. Ben brings to his music influences from all over the musical spectrum. From Mediterranean music, reflecting his early childhood in Israel, Rock music which reflect his teens, and Jazz music which reflect his late teens and twenties. Due to his international career the album, has reached far places of the world, to different kinds of music lovers, and is played in a variety of US and Israeli radio stations. Engineer Michael Perez-Cisneros (worked with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Eli Degibri, Omer Avital) mixed and mastered the album. He captured the intense performances of drummer Ziv Ravitz (Lee Konitz, Omer Klein, Shai Maestro) and acoustic bassist Daniel Ori (ASCAP Jazz Composers Award Winner of 2009).

In 2004 Ben received a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston. He graduated with honours in 2007 with a double major in contemporary writing and production and performance. He studied under such luminaries as Mick Goodrick, Joe Lovano, Dave "Fuze" Fiuczynski, George Garzone, David Tronzo and more. While attending Berklee Ben has sharpen not only his instrumental skills, but also his writing and producing skills. Giving him a wider overview on his music and making it more accessible to the non musicians or academic crowd.

Writing music for bands, WEBSITES and movies also give Ben his diverse and unique sound. Having said that, with all the vast influences, it is very important for Ben to keep his music organic and natural sounding, he treats it like a living, breathing being.