Dolomiti Ski Jazz - Omer Avi Tal and his Band of East

Avishai Cohen (on the trumpet)
Joel Frahm (on the sax)
Omer Klein (on the piano)
Omer Avital (on the bass)
Ziv Ravit (on the drums)

Trained first as a classical guitarist, he plays chords all over the neck and uses guitar techniques for strumming; the result is a passing hint of flamenco or blues. He can be flrrt and jazz-melodic in the style of Oscar Pettiford, then buzz around the tonic like a devotional singer; he grew up in Tel Aviv, in a Moroccan- Yemenite family, and the Arabic and Spanish comes together with the blues in his music. Proper technique isn't all; he punches and twangs the strings, knocking fresh slang out of the bass. Outside Charles Mingus and the free-jazz bassist William Parker, such dramatic violence on the instrument is hard to come by.