AmericanWired.com
March 2006

THE OMER AVITAL GROUP
Asking No Permission
(Smalls Records)

In the mid 1990s Israeli born bassist Omer Avital led one of New York’s finest bands, comprised of outstanding musicians like drummer Ali Jackson (now with Wynton Marsalis) and tenor saxophonists Greg Tardy and Mark Turner. Recorded at tiny Village club, Smalls, in 1996, Asking No Permission documents Avital’s mighty composing, arranging and bass skills, and also how a small label can outshine the majors. At its best, this often extraordinary sextet blows hot and confrontational like Coltrane, and simmers as intensely as a Mingus ballad. Avital is a force of nature, whipping the band into a fury on the winding “Devil Head” (accompanied by a gleeful Ali Jackson), driving a spin-on-a-dime version of “Lullaby of the Leaves” and creating chewy rhythmic spurts on the Monkish opener “Know What I Mean?” This band deserved much wider exposure, and Smalls Records (which is documenting Smalls' many jam sessions with an ongoing series) will release three more volumes of Avital’s masterly music in the months ahead. -- Ken Micallef