Description
About Avi
Avi is a California based jazz saxophonist and composer. Rafael currently lives in Los Angeles CA, performing, arranging, composing, and teaching. Avi was born and raised in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Growing up in a musical family, he was exposed to music at a very early age and started playing at the age of 6. He picked up the clarinet at the age of 8 years old, and later on switched to saxophone. Rafael has studied and successfully graduated from the Jazz Institute program of Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. During his studies at Rimon, Rafael got to learn from and play with some of the best musicians in the country, all of which are considered to be milestones of the Israeli jazz scene. Among them were Mordy Ferber, Matan Chapnizky, Ronen Shmueli, Yonatan Voltzok, Amikam Kimelman, Guri Agmon, Hagai Amir, and many more… After he completed his studies at Rimon, Avi received a prestigious scholarship at Berklee College of Music and moved to Boston. He graduated Summa Cum Laude and received his B.M. degree from Berklee in 2018. During his time in Boston, Rafael had the chance to study and also shared a stage with numerous local legends like George Garzone, Tia Fuller, Dino Govoni, Ayn Inserto, Terence Blanchard and Phil Wilson, to name a few. Rafael has been performing with both his own original music ensembles and also with renowned Israeli musicians since around 2009, touring all around the country and abroad, and performing in the most prestigious music venues including the Grey, Levontin 7, Ozen-Bar, Tmuna Theater, The Zone, Beit Hayotzer, Shablul, Doris – Afikim, Havana Club Tel-Aviv, Beraleh, Zappa Herzelia & Tel-Aviv, Reading 3, Bar Giora, Heichal HaTarbut Tel-Aviv\Ashkelon\Petach Tikva, etc… Other than performing with his own projects including the Avi Rafael Fusion Program, Avi Rafael Quartet and more, Rafael had performed, toured and collaborated with Heathens, Just the Way You Are led by David Krivoshey, Misha Segal, Moments Band Int– both in Israel and Europe, and performed with esteemed artists like Enrico Macias, Mordy Ferber, Alon Oleartchik, Billy Cobham, Tom Oren, Billy Buss, Yogev Gabay and more…
Avi's past performances
Booking and General Policy
- Get in touch with us via email, phone, or chat with us on our website to set an appointment.
- Choose a musician, group, or package and ask for a draft contract. For ceremony & cocktail bookings, you may opt to book online through our interactive tool. Refer to our calendar to check for an available slot for your event date.
- Secure the date by depositing a down payment of 25% through our interactive tool and pay via credit card, venmo, paypal, or send us a check.
Your booking is automatically confirmed upon receipt of the deposit OR signed contract!
Please note: If we don’t receive the signed contract OR the required deposit within 7 days from the date of the contract, we will need to re-confirm the artist(s) availability again.
Once your booking is confirmed, you will receive a username and password to access our portal. You may now create your custom wedding playlist via our interactive portal.
Please use our interactive tool to choose among thousands of songs in our playlist. There you can choose songs for your ceremony and cocktail hour.
We understand that at times, the unexpected happens. Our policy on cancellations are written below:
- For cancellations 30 days before the event, you will receive a 100% refund of the deposit amount.
- For cancellations less than 30 days before the event, the deposit is non-refundable.
Please Provide Shade/Umbrella
- We require a shade/umbrella for our musicians, instruments, and audio equipment. This is due to the extreme sensitivity of musical instruments to changes in temperature and exposure to sunlight and humidity. In some cases exposure to elements may lead to irreparable damage to the instruments.
Please Prepare a Covered/Dry Location in Case of Rain
- We require a covered/dry location for our musicians, instruments, and audio equipment in case of rain. Exposure to water or humidity is damaging to our musical instruments and audio equipment. In some cases exposure to elements may lead to irreparable damage to the instruments.
- We love playing outdoors but in lower temperatures please provide a heater for our musicians. Our musicians remain outdoors for more than an hour with an additional hour to set up before the appointment. The heater will keep them warm before and during their performance.
Most of the songs are between 3 to 4 minutes long. A 45-minute set is about 12 to 15 songs. But we recommend that you pick at least 20 songs, just in case our Los Angeles Live Saxophonists need to play longer for whatever reason.
Our Saxophonist in Los Angeles can play pretty much anything but based on our experience, the cocktail hour setlist should be more of an upbeat song. Here is our list of suggestions for the Cocktail Hour setlist.
Live music is needed from the very beginning of guests arrival (Prelude) at the ceremony site, then followed by the proper ceremony which typically lasts about 30 to 45 minutes, then postlude music as guests congratulating the newlyweds. The next event is the cocktail hour which needs to play more upbeat songs to keep the guests entertained while having hors d’oeuvres. The dinner background music is equally important as live music for the kickoff dancing. Feel free to browse our song suggestions from prelude to postlude, cocktail hour to kick-off dancing, and all these events can be covered by our Los Angeles Solo Saxophonist.
Typically dinner music should be mellow, smooth yet familiar to most of the guests. A good setlist for this is a combination of Jazz Standards and Pop songs. Here is our playlist suggestion.
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