The Omer Avital Group: Think With Your Heart (2001)

By

C. MICHAEL BAILEY,

C. Michael Bailey

Senior Contributor - Since 1997

...wants to know if Gene Harris is playing "Summertime" in Heaven...

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Published: January 1, 2002

Pure Post Bop.

Avishai Cohen is not the only Israeli-born bassist flexing his muscles on the United States Jazz Scene. Omer Avital has provided an expansive debut recording in Think With Your Heart. Hyperintelligent and free, Think With Your Heart could be considered what happens to Post Bop as a genre when it is perfected. Add to this the ethnic flair that is infused (hear the cacophonous opening to "Flow") and the music makes an almost religious statement demanding to be heard.

Nothin here would betray this a freshman recording effort. Avital has two solo excursions on the disc, the first being Bob Marley's "Redemption Song." Avital only ventures beyond his own composition with an airy, Middle Eastern "Stella By Starlight." The remainder of the music is an exciting concoction made up of equal parts prodigy, youthful enthusiasm, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Bill Holman, and Ariel Sharone. Defiantly brilliant and recommended.

Track Listing:

Redemption Song; Flow; Think With Your Heart; Stella By Starlight; Make Believe; Andaluz; Marrakesh; Tune In "D"; The Journey Home; Let It Grow. (Total Time: 36:50).

Personnel:

Omer Avital: Basses; Greg Tardy: Tenor Saxophone & Bass Clarinet; Jay Collins: Flute, Tenor Saxophone, Bamboo Flutes & Soprano Saxophone; Myron Walden: Alto Saxophone; Joel Frahm: Tenor Saxophone; Jimmy Greene: Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone; Joshua Levitt: Nay Flute; Daniel Freedman: Drums, Bells & Cymbals, Percussion, Claps & Vocals; Marlon Browden: Drums

Record Label: Blue Moon