Received an email from Avi Rosenfeld asking of I’d listen to and review his latest album entitled Very Heepy, Very Purple V. True to his word, Avi sent me CD and also introduced himself with the following form of words:
“From childhood the sounds of Classic Rock were played in my home constantly. Deep Purple, Rainbow, Uriah Heep … and slowly those sounds kinda felt good in my ears. Since then I was addicted to this kind of music, and those bands are my favourites until this day. “
“I began playing guitar at the age of 13 and played in a few bands along the years. Song writing was always my passion, influences by lots of different musical styles, but always had the root of Classic Rock.”
Since I started collaborating with musicians from all over the world, playing my original music, I recorded 27 albums together with them, plus few more that weren’t published yet. The latest one, “Very Heepy Very Purple V” is my tribute to the bands I grew up listening to and that had the biggest influence on my music.”
From that I awaited the CD arriving with some anticipation expecting it to be a jolly good throwback to the glorious days of the 1970s when my beloved Uriah Heep and other classic rock bands such as Rainbow, Whitesnake (pre-MTV sell-out) etc. stalked the Earth.
Am very pleased to say that I was not disappointed. Avi has put together a very fine bunch of original songs in the style of Heep/Deep Purple/Rainbow et al all of which make a more than pleasurable listen.
There’s a bit of a mysterious Eastern tinge to proceedings too which adds a bit of extra spice with Avi being from Israel.
The songs punch along very nicely. Close your eyes and imagine RDJ, Gillan or Byron on vocals and this could well be Heep, Rainbow or similar such is the musical style. That said please don’t think this is a “rip off”. It’s not. Avi’s song writing reflects the 1970s/classic rock style though remains original and stands up to the scrutiny of my ears at least.
The guitar work is reminiscent of Mick Box and Ritchie Blackmore merging in nicely with the keys and swirling organ style not unlike a Ken Hensley or a Jon Lord.
A fine example being Dealer. A pumping slab of a song which could have stepped straight off Sweet Freedom or Rainbow Rising.
With Very Heepy, Very Purple V I must say that Avi does indeed, as he says, pay tribute to the bands he (and I) listened to discovering “proper” music and still listen to now. Not only that, he pays that tribute in an original way with a nice set of strongly written and performed songs in the classic rock vein.
Do check it out for yourself. Give it a listen on BandCamp here and download it if you like it (you will):
https://avirosenfeld.bandcamp.com/album/very-heepy-very-purple-v
More about Avi on his Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/AviRosenfeldBand
My thanks to him for the review copy.