Downbeat Magazine

April 2006

The Hot Box

Omer Avital Group
Asking No Permission
Smalls Records 0011

John McDonough (****), John Corbett (****), Jim Macnie (****), Paul de Barros (*** 1/2)

An historic live, unedited snapshot of a crucial moment at the after-hours basement club Smalls, a 1990s petri-dish for a generation of Manhattan talent. No small part of that was Israeli bassist Avital’s unusual sextet—four horns, bass and drums—which combined the greasy soulfulness and raw elasticity of Mingus with the light-footed experimentalism of cool jazz. The mysterious, multidirectional “Devil Head” is worth the ride.

-- Paul de Barros

Document of a scene, a record had better be pretty special to deserve to come out a decade after it’s been recorded. Mark Turner sounds fantastic, and the band is tight and loose in just the right proportions. Worth the wait.

-- John Corbett

Not as iconoclastic as its press clippings imply, but no lesson compelling, this fine sax team swings it up with an uncommon lust and manages to assemble some dazzling ensemble interludes (“12 Tribes”). If occasionally it tries our patience with a bass or drum solo that overstays its welcome, the horns repay the wait. Further section work would enrich and anchor an already superior unit.

-- John McDonough