QANTAR

Omer's Dream Quintet

QANTAR is OMER AVITAL’s dream quintet. Since forming in 2016, the improvisations they created around Avital’s compositions jelled in an immediate and uncanny way, as if the musicians were traveling along the same tightrope, aloft and daring, with an incredible solidarity held together by a bond that went far beyond performing the notes and letting go in the solos. That bond seems to have been formed from their individual careers criss-crossing so many times since leaving Israel. Indeed, all are Israeli expatriates, all living in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, all then hanging out at Omer’s sharing dinner and Turkish coffee. There is a friendship these musicians enjoy which definitely penetrates the performances. This shared history, even though years apart, imbued this quintet with the key to Avital’s music: his 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.

YES! TRIO

fiery Swing

Bound by a friendship of twenty-five years, drummer Ali Jackson, pianist Aaron Goldberg and bassist Omer Avital—three contemporary masters of jazz with a tremendous wealth of experience and credits ranging from Wynton Marsalis to Joshua Redman and Kurt Rosenwinkel—release their second collaborative studio effort “Groove du Jour”. Vibrant and exhilarating, their recording magnifies the spirit of swing and celebrates the excitement of playing together, imbuing their shared art with love, fun and optimism.