Article 3 - Sandy's Place - Consumer Newsletter 2-3

Sandy's Place - Omar Avital Quintet at The Jazz Standard

Those of you that are familiar with my musical taste know that it leans heavily in the jazz direction. This basically developed back in the early 70s, when I was attending college at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In addition to avidly collecting discarded tube amplifiers, like McIntosh 60s, 275s, Marantz 8s, 9s and the like that people were selling in the Sunday classifieds, as they "traded up to solid state", I was also developing my musical taste and moving from rock to jazz. I had the opportunity, in those days, to hear most of the rock legends, like Hendrix, Joplin, the Airplane, Santana, Canned Heat, etc., etc., live at the Fillmore East in NY (followed by late night dinners in Chinatown), among other venues.

But one day, while driving North up Charles Street, passing the Famous Ballroom, I saw on their marquee, that Pharaoh Sanders would be playing that Sunday at the Left Bank Jazz Society. Now, what was the Left Bank Jazz Society? Simply the best place to hear jazz on the planet in the late 60s and 70s. On Sunday, the Famous Ballroom was home to the Society, which held concerts from 5-9 in the evening, BYOB, bring your own food, sit at the picnic tables and groove. The Famous Ballroom, up on the second floor, was a classic 40s ballroom with blue painted ceiling and floating clouds.

Well, Pharoah blew my mind (He is still my favorite jazz musician, don't miss him if he is in town), and I was off into the world of jazz. At the Famous I got to hear the jazz greats of the day, like Ellington, Basie, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker, Sun Ra, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Stan Getz, Johnny Hartman and the list goes on and on. Oh, and let's not forget Charles Mingus. Mingus was an extraordinary bass player, band leader and composer; clearly one of the most accomplished and important musicians of the day. I think that I have virtually every Mingus recording available, including all the underground concert recordings. Mingus was just amazing, and I heard him not only at the Famous, but in New York at the Vanguard, as well as at other clubs. And now, that brings me to Omar Avital.

I first heard Omar years ago at Smalls, another NY club, leading a quintet of Israeli jazz musicians and playing his own compositions. I remember going back to my hotel room that night thinking: this guy reminds me of Mingus. He attacked his instrument, totally controlled his band, and his compositions were terrific. When I looked into Omar's history, I learned he came to NY from Israel, recorded his first album on Impulse in 1992, and had played with the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, Joshua Redman, Roy Haynes, etc, as well as many of his own Omar Avital Quintet at The Jazz Standard

Omar Avital Quintet at The Jazz Standard

bands. I try to hear Omar whenever possible, and on June 28th, he was playing at the Jazz Standard (one of my favorite NY clubs and close to my NY loft) and I was in town. How fortuitous.

Omar was playing with a quintet, including Eli Dogbri and Joel Frahm on saxophones, Yonathan Avishai on piano, and Jonathan Blake on drums. They were simply outstanding. As with Mingus, Omar gets the best out of them and drives his musicians hard, way beyond their norm. Also, as with Mingus, Omar is not out front taking center stage, but in the back, but clearly the leader. His compositions are strong, interesting, and not too out, but just enough. The solos that night were super, including Omar's, and I left the Standard, floating on air, and headed down to a late night dinner in Chinatown at Hopkee. Omar's latest album is entitled New Song, and it is excellent. The critics describe it as," A synthesis of post bop and Israeli folk music". I describe it as GREAT!