Omer Avital Free

Bassist Omer Avital is strong and conceptually ambitious on his debut recording. After beginning with an unaccompanied rendition of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song," he leads his group through eight stirring originals, as well as a 5/4 arrangement of "Stella by Starlight." The record is a sax-and-flute fest: most of the tunes burst with the harmonic richness of a little big band, thanks to the presence of Jay Collins, Greg Tardy, Myron Walden, Joel Frahm, and Jimmy Greene, at times all on the same track. Daniel Freedman plays drums on six cuts, Marlon Browden on three. Avital the arranger is more than capable of harnessing all this combined talent; what's more, he never falls back on obvious devices or rote solo rotations (there's usually only one soloist per tune). Some of the tracks run together as segues, giving the record a suite-like structure that increases its emotional impact…

On the heels of his fantastic 2014 album, New Song, bassist Omer Avital delivers an enthralling performance on Abutbul Music, his debut for the Paris-based Jazz Village label. The program embraces hard-bop as its guiding spirit, but uses numerous other genres as touchstones, including Israeli folk music, funk, Afro-beat and various Latin styles. Avital, who studied Arab music theory during a three-year hiatus from New York in the early 2000s, navigates these diverse idioms with sure-footed poise, as does his agile quintet, which includes the inventive pianist Yonathan Avishai, the effervescent drummer Ofri Nehemya, the keen tenor and soprano saxophonist Asaf Yuria and the astute tenor saxophonist Alexander Levin.