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Stories   >   Avishai Cohen - Big Vicious makes NPR: 'The Best New Songs You've Missed During Quarantine'

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Avishai Cohen - Big Vicious makes NPR: 'The Best New Songs You've Missed During Quarantine'

Posted: April 8, 2020

Music still moves. While some musicians have decided, reasonably, to delay albums during the coronavirus pandemic, many more are choosing to create, inspire and uplift by moving up release dates or surprising us with unannounced songs. We're all overwhelmed with the news and retreating to creature comforts, and you might not have made time to find or listen to new songs and albums in a while. Press Pause, a playlist updated daily, keeps track of new music released during the quarantine, as selected by the NPR Music staff. As is the NPR Music way, we skip across genres from track to track: pop, hip-hop, R&B, classical, punk, ambient, jazz, rock, urbano and whatever else offers an escape or reckons with our current condition.

Avishai Cohen - Big Vicious makes NPR: 'The Best New Songs You've Missed During Quarantine'

Charismatic trumpeter Avishai Cohen launched his homegrown band Big Vicious six years ago, after relocating from the US to his native Israel, rounding up friends to shape the music from the ground up. Guitarist Uzi Ramirez, bassist Jonathan Albalak and drummer Aviv Cohen write much of the material together with Avishai. Ziv Ravitz, from Avishai's acoustic quartet, was recruited as second drummer a year ago. "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.