Omer Avital

Bassist Omer Avital was born in the small Israeli town of Givataim where his formal training began at age 11 when he entered the Givataim Conservatory to study classical guitar. He grew up in Tel Aviv, in a Moroccan-Yemenite family, where evidence of his Middle Eastern and Spanish influences came together with jazz and blues. While enrolled at the Talma Yalin, Israel's leading arts high school, he switched his focus to the acoustic bass, was the leader of the jazz ensemble, and wrote all the arrangements. By his senior year at age 17, he was playing professionally, but then sp...