Israeli-born pianist and composer Ari Erev started playing the piano at the age of 4. His first teacher was his amateur-pianist father and he later studied the classical piano repertoire under Mrs. Silvia Cohen of Tel-Aviv. At the age of 17, after forming and leading a number of contemporary music bands, the exciting sounds of jazz hooked him. Over the years, he studied jazz and improvisation with Dr. Zvi Keren, one of Israel's premiere jazz and composition teachers, with pianists Nahum Perperkovich and Arik Strauss, and with arranger and composer Ilan Mociach at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv.
Throughout his performance career, Ari has worked and cooperated with many Israeli artists, including pop/rock singer Gali Atari and composer Yael German. Jazz musicians with whom he has performed include saxophonists Rosta Fras (Prague, CZ), Robert Anchipolovsky (Phil Woods) Erez Barnoy and Ofer Shapira, bassists Petr Dvorsky (Prague, CZ), Yorai Oron, Arie Volinez (Dave Liebman), Udi Kazmirski, Vinnie Venkov and Kobi Hass, drummers Gideon Pasahov, Ori Raz, and Yoav Zohar, guitarists Dan Adler and Inbar Fridman, vocalists Julia Feldman, Dalia Shpiegel/Pinkus and Mel Rosengerg (partial list).
He performs regularly with vocalist Tami Kelly, including in a commissioned Jazz quintet production for the 20th anniversary of the Tel-Aviv Jazz Festival.
Ari plays and performs regularly in Israel’s top jazz clubs, including "Shablul Jazz" in Tel-Aviv, "Yellow Submarine" in Jerusalem and "Milestone" in Binyamina. He also performed in festivals and jazz series, as well as on Israeli radio and TV. He composed music for the documentary “Bokito” (directed by Reuven Hacker and Shalev Vaynes), has played in a few theater plays, and has served as the musical director for a number of vocalists' jazz productions. He also teaches piano jazz improvisation.
For the past several years, Ari has led a jazz trio performing a tribute program for the music of Bill Evans. Some musical samples from this program, entitled “Jazz From the Heart,” can be found here.).
Ari released his debut album, “About Time”, a jazz trio production, in 2008.
It was recently selected for digital distribution, by the label “Art of Life Records”.
More information and music samples, as well as some review highlights on the album, can be found on the “About Time” page, on this site.
