Omer Avital

Omer Avital – New Song (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:02:22 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Plus Loin Music

New Song features a quintet which Omer Avital has led for many years, and which is a direct descendant of the ensemble with which Avital made a name for himself when he first arrived in New York. However, this current group is imbued with the cultural heritage that the bass player took time exploring in the mid-2000s, when he returned to his homeland to reconnect with his ancestral roots Yemenite on his mother s side and Moroccan on his father’s. With Omer Avital, the integration of jazz with the musical traditions of the Arab world is more than just a convenient meeting. It is the fruit of the assimilation of two cultures, an assimilation so strong that New Song resonates with endless colours and rhythms, joyfully combining ritual music with Afro-American grooves, linking the phrasing of Eastern melodies with the fervour of gospel and the expressiveness of soul. From the trance of Gnaouas to the funky warmth of Jazz Messengers, Yemenite songs with the workshop spirit of Charles Mingus, his musicians are at one with him as they effortlessly and joyfully leap from one genre to another.

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Omer Avital – Qantar: New York Paradox (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 57:07 minutes | 711 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jazz & People

Qantar is more than just another group, it is for all intents and purposes a family and a community with its own customs, growing traditions, and even language (both musical and verbal). These five artists have formed a special friendship that projects a singular energy on the bandstand and on their recordings. Indeed, all are Israeli expatriates, all living in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, all regularly hanging out at their leader’s home, sharing dinner, Turkish coffee, stories, ideas, joys and sorrows. This shared history, even though years apart, imbibes this quintet with the key to Avital’s music: the ability to bring the various rhythmic and harmonic vocabularies underpinning 20th and 21st century hardcore jazz expression to flow with a polyphonic attitude and musical multilingualism.

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Omer Avital – Abutbul Music (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:27:22 minutes | 1,79 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jazz Village

Born in Israel to a Moroccan father and a Yemenite mother, now living in the U.S., the bassist, composer, bandleader, Omer Avital, is a major force in the New York music scene for over twenty years. Avital’s genre-defying ensembles are pushing the boundaries of jazz expression with swing and spiritual sustenance in equal measure. On this new album, recorded in Paris, Avital delivers a strong statement, with a powerful sound, joyful rhythms and oriental melodies that draw on gospel and soul. Avital is continually evolving contemporary jazz, rightly being called one of the most unique musicians of his generation.

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