Need help with finalizing list of java libraries for API e2e testing

Hi everyone!
Need some help to decide on the best set of tools to use for my current assignment.
I'm an automation tester and I used to work in front-end test automation using Selenium WebDriver. Now I got a new job and this is completely different from what I used to do before. Right now I'm going to be involved in end-to-end testing of back-end APIs and I need some help with finalizing my list of tools/libs.

A general test with steps would be as follows:
1. HTTP parameterized request to the API
2. Validate response from the API - 200 / ...
3. Validate received JSON
4. Various calls to Hadoop / HIVE for data validations.

What I have come up with so far:
1-3: A Java HTTP client - OkHttp / unirest / restassured / retrofit / ??? - can anyone suggest which one of these I should use? Can all of these libraries send complex, parameterized HTTP requests? I might also need to send async requests for multi-threaded parallel tests. Pros-cons for any of the libs?
4. Java JDBC? Any thoughts/suggestions on this point?

Any other thing, link, whatever you can think of to mention with regards to the above will be also appreciated.

Thanks in advance.