Alon Near is an Israeli double bassist who began studying music in Israel at fourteen and has spent his adult career based in New York. Documented performances at Smalls Jazz Club go back to at least February 2016, when he was already working regularly alongside trumpeter Andrew Forman's afternoon jam sessions; by 2018 he was leading his own trio's "After-Hours" sets at the same club, a run that continued through 2020. He completed his studies at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, which later granted him an honorary degree, and attended the Berklee Global Jazz Institute's workshops under Terri Lyne Carrington before receiving a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music. In 2013 he won first prize at the Rostov Jazz Competition, and in 2021 he took third prize at the International Society of Bassists Competition.

While still a student, Near performed at Carnegie Hall as part of pianist Billy Childs's quartet and began a long-running collaboration with saxophonist Eli Degibri, touring internationally with Degibri as both bassist and arranger. He has also appeared in projects alongside pianist Joey Alexander and Germany's WDR Big Band, and has worked New York's club circuit with musicians including drummers Ari Hoenig and Donny McCaslin's quartet, saxophonist George Garzone, pianist Miki Yamanaka, and drummer Joe Farnsworth, per SmallsLive's own dated performance archive.

Near is the bassist in Yuval Cohen's working quartet, alongside pianist Tom Oren and drummer Alon Benjamini, heard on Cohen's 2025 ECM debut, Winter Poems, recorded at Studios La Buissonne and produced by Manfred Eicher. He is also credited on pianist Lynne Arriale's trio album Being Human (2024, Challenge Records), alongside drummer Łukasz Żyta. In May 2026 he released his first album of original compositions, Names, Places, on Hypnote Records, described as a musical travel journal written over five years of touring and assembled from five recording sessions across three continents. The album features a wide circle of collaborators, including trumpeter Itamar Borochov, flutist Itai Kriss, pianist Tom Oren, guitarist Yotam Silberstein, and drummer Ofri Nehemya, alongside Alon Benjamini on drums on some tracks.

Near's own description of his music centers on melody and simplicity, with the double bass used as what he calls a "vocal storyteller" rather than a purely rhythmic instrument. His arranging work with Eli Degibri's international touring band and his years inside Yuval Cohen's ECM-associated quartet have shaped an approach attentive to space, texture and ensemble transparency rather than dense virtuosity. Names, Places, his debut as a leader, extends that sensibility across original compositions drawn directly from travel and memory, built from sessions recorded on three different continents but unified by a consistent melodic and textural focus.