Avishai Cohen & Big Vicious Big Vicious LP

Charismatic trumpeter Avishai Cohen launched his exuberant, home-grown band Big Vicious six years ago, after relocating from the US to his native Israel, rounding up players to shape the music from the ground up, and co-authoring much of its newest material together with them. The group is an association of old friends. "We're all coming from jazz, but some of us left it earlier", Avishai says, summing up the stylistic reach of his cohorts. "Everyone's bringing in their backgrounds, and that becomes part of the sound of the band." Textures from electronica, ambient music and psychedelia are part of the blend, so too grooves and beats from rock, pop, trip-hop and more. A wide-open approach to cover versions - from Massive Attack to Beethoven - is also integral to the Vicious vision. Recorded in Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in August 2019 and produced by Manfred Eicher, Big Vicious's debut album is issued as the band gears up for extensive international touring.

"When musicians blur the boundaries between jazz, rock, and electronica, they can put themselves on a fine line between sleek and slick. On his fourth release for ECM, trumpeter Avishai Cohen negotiates this liminal space of polished fusion without tumbling down the slippery slope toward facile pop. Big Vicious is relatively atypical of Manfred Eicher's label, with its abundance of electric instruments and effects, but it benefits from Eicher's pinpoint and atmospheric production... " - Derk Richardson, The Absolute Sound, July/August 2020