Ariel Bart: Harmonica Player and Composer

Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

This podcast strives to inspire you through the personal stories of a diversity of musicians worldwide, with in-depth conversations and great music, that reveal the depth and breadth to a life in music.

This week’s episode is with the wonderful harmonica player and composer Ariel Bart. I first started listening to her music with her debut album, “In Between” in which she presents a unique approach to the harmonica and all her albums feature her original music which is inspired by the European jazz tradition and the Middle-Eastern world. Ariel began playing the chromatic harmonica at the age of 7 and since then it’s been her primary instrument. We’re including music from several of her albums. You’ll hear about some of her inspiring mentors and collaborators and her positive experience at the New School University for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, including working with Reggie Workman, Shai Maestro, and Jane Ira Bloom. We also talked about the music business, and her delight in using storytelling and film with her music. Like all my episodes, you can also watch this on my YouTube channel and I’ve also linked the transcript to my website, everything linked together here: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/ariel-bart

Besides being the host, I take care of all the many jobs of research, production, and publicity for this podcast, and I really do need the help of my listeners to keep this project going; please consider buying me a coffee through my support page which is linked to Paypal: https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

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Ariel Bart website: https://www.arielbart.com/

Take a Ten Minute Break, solo Nine Souls video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8VnpGV2b58

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:51) Ariel Bart’s harmonica journey and music education, starting to compose

(07:40) In Between

(13:16) Brendan Power, chromatic harmonica, playing technique

(18:15) harmonica improvisation

(20:03) Ariel’s influences and mentors, Jane Ira Bloom, New School in New York, Reggie Workman, effect of many influences

(28:36) please help this series keep going!

(29:13) making Teardrop narrative video, storytelling

(31:55) Teardrop

(35:18) The Trio Project

(37:52) part two Listening to Shame from The Trio Project

(42:12) writing for film, collaborations cellists Mayu Shviro, Talia Erdal

(46:17) European contacts, the challenge of teaching

(48:56) the need to learn the business side of a music career

(52:32) clip from Deep Down with Omri Bar Giora

(53:23) creative process, the importance of collaboration

(54:56) the novelty of the harmonica for audiences, listening to singers

(56:01) Nine Souls film project Take a Ten Minute Break

(57:33) Nine Souls ensemble version from album Documentaries