# New musics from Omer Avital, Lakecia Benjamin and Curtis Stigers: Videos, Photos, Sounds

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/03/23/new-musics-from-omer-avital-lakecia-benjamin-and-curtis-stigers-videos-photos-sounds/
- Published: 2020-03-23T15:39:21+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Hear some new music that speaks clearly of human connection.**

**Omer Avital’s Qantar, “Just Like the River Flows”**

Bassist and composer Omer Avital arrived in New York in 1992, and within a few years
he was causing a big stir with a series of groove-minded, pianoless bands that held
court at Smalls. Ben Ratliff, writing about an Avital sextet in an admiring profile
for _The New York Times,_ observed that “the band has become a local favorite within
the confines of that room and it feeds off the cheery feeling particular to the 
club.”

Smalls is among the many jazz clubs recently compelled to go dark, its collegial
hum silenced for the foreseeable future. But those social energies are worth keeping
alive and close at hand, through its  show archive or other means. Those energies
also continue to reside in Avital’s music, which has evolved since the ‘90s, bending
toward the Middle Eastern music of his heritage. (He is of Moroccan and Yemeni descent,
but was born and raised in Israel.)

A new album, New York Paradox — just out on Avital’s label, Zamzama Records, in 
partnership with jazz&people — features the all-Israeli quintet he calls Qantar.
One of the album’s standout tracks is “Just Like the River Flows,” a suite-like 
composition featured here in performance at Wilson Live!, Avital’s performance space
and recording studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

The video, premiering here, highlights the effortless camaraderie in Qantar’s rhythm
section, with Avital, pianist Eden Ladin and drummer Ofri Nehemya. The melody is
scored in octaves for the band’s two saxophonists, who follow Ladin’s solo with 
their own: first Asaf Yuria, keening brightly on soprano, and then Alexander Levin,
husky and imploring on tenor.

**Lakecia Benjamin, ****“****Om Shanti****” ****(feat. Georgia Anne Muldrow and 
Meshell Ndegeocello)**

Speaking of keening and imploring saxophonists: Lakecia Benjamin has been working
for years toward a statement as powerfully self-assured as _Pursuance: The Coltranes_.
Releasing this Friday on Ropeadope, it’s the fulfillment of a dream, as Benjamin
told WBGO recently for The Pulse. And along with her mentor and co-producer Reggie
Workman — the bassist, Coltrane alumnus and NEA Jazz Master — the album features
dozens of guests, from Brandee Younger to Gary Bartz.

For Alice Coltrane’s “Om Shanti” — a chant long circulated on cassette for the members
of her ashram, and [finally issued in 2017](https://youtu.be/_AMY3OYz2Kc) on _The
Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane _(Luaka Bop) — Benjamin drew from personal history.
It was Georgia Anne Muldrow who first introduced her to Alice Coltrane’s music, 
and even connected her with the ashram. Muldrow’s deeply soulful vocal melds perfectly
with Meshell Ndegeocello’s serpentine electric bass, as Benjamin’s alto weaves through
the mix. “Om Shanti,” of course, invokes peace for humankind. To which I say: Hear,
hear.

**MAE.SUN, “Awaken”**

The calming power of “Om Shanti” can also be located in “Awaken,” the opening track
of MAE.SUN’s 2019 album Vol. 2: Into the Flow_._ A band led by saxophonist, flutist
and composer Hailey Niswanger, MAE.SUN puts a contemporary gloss on the spiritualism
of 1970s soul-jazz, with contributions by vibraphonist Nikara Warren, guitarist 
Andrew Renfroe, keyboardist Axel Laugart and others.

The video for “Awaken,” which premieres here, was directed by Manut Buapet; it depicts
Niswanger and a handful of others, including Jelani Bauman and Britta Rae, in a 
series of picturesque natural landscapes. (At one point, Niswanger takes an electric
razor to her scalp, in what appears to be a nod to monastic asceticism.) In the 
end, each individual in the video joins the others on a rugged beach; the culmination
is a communion.

**Liberty Ellman, “Doppler”**

Guitarist and composer Liberty Ellman favors both crisp precision and malleability
in his music; he’d probably be the first to acknowledge the composerly influence
of Henry Threadgill, who has been a mentor on the bandstand for nearly 20 years.
Ellman’s new album — Last Desert_, _due on Pi Recordings this Friday — extends the
purview of _Radiate, _from 2015. Once again it features his intricate designs for
a sextet with Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet, Steve Lehman on alto saxophone, Jose
Davila on tuba, Stephan Crump on bass and Damion Reid on drums.

[[

“Doppler,” which premieres here, deftly incorporates a staccato melody over a pointillist,
asymmetrical groove; it’s no wonder where Ellman got the title. The improvisations
unfold as a round-robin: first Finlayson, then Ellman, then Lehman, and so on. And
without making it obvious, the soloists carry an idea forward, giving the impression
of a single mind at work.

**Curtis Stigers with Larry Goldings, “Shut-Ins”**

Vocalist, saxophonist and songwriter Curtis Stigers — the pride of Boise, Idaho —
has a new album due on Emarcy next month. Along with songs by the likes of Nick 
Lowe and John Fullbright, the album, _Gentleman, _features a couple of new tunes
by Bill DeMain and Larry Goldings. Here is yet another one by that team: a twinkly
love song that proposes the most romantic version of self-quarantine. “Let the fever
and the folly play out / I’d rather be a shut-in with you.”

“I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it,” says Stigers, who recorded
the song with Goldings earlier this month. “It’s so romantic. Then, as social distancing
and self-quarantining became a reality, I realized it isn’t just a love song, it’s
also a public service announcement, a lovers’ guide to staying healthy and smart
in a pandemic.” As the saying goes: love will save the day.

![Bassist Omer Avital is the leader of Qantar, which has a new album, 'New York 
Paradox'](https://i0.wp.com/www.wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/medium/public/202003/
omer_avital_qantar_01____lior_tzemach.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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