Abbey Rader

Last updated
Abbey Rader
Abbey Rader - PAX Concert 10-31-2012.jpg
Background information
Born(1943-10-14)October 14, 1943
New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres Avant-garde jazz, free jazz, spiritual
OccupationMusician
InstrumentDrums
Years active1961–present
LabelsAbray
Website www.abbeyrader.com

Abbey Rader (October 14, 1943) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his childhood and early career, he worked in New York City where loft jazz, [1] bebop, and free jazz influenced him. He played and taught across Europe in the 1970s and 1980s and then returned to North America to create music that combines free jazz, martial arts, and Buddhism. He has recorded over twenty-five albums as a leader and has worked with Dave Liebman, John Handy, Billy Bang, Dr. L. Subramaniam, and Mal Waldron in a career spanning over four decades. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Rader's album First Gathering was named one of the Best of 2015. [5] It's the first album from his West Coast Quartet with Peter Kuhn, Kyle Motl and Drew Ceccato. His album, Reunion, was released on July 23, 2016 [6] and is a recording of his live October 31, 2012 performance at PAX: Performing Arts Exchange in Miami, Florida. This was an improvised performance including Kidd Jordan, John McMinn, Kyle Motl, and Noah Brandmark. [7]

The Message, was released in August 2014 [8] and is a recording of his live January 2014 radio performance on Evenin' Jazz with the Real Tracy Fields at WLRN Miami. [9] The Message was named one of the Best of 2014 by Avant Music News. [10]

Before this, his quartet featuring John McMinn, Noah Brandmark and Kyle Motl released their second recording, Reach for the Skies a runner-up for Album of Year in 2013. [11] [12] [13] Their first album, Live at PAX, was named one of the Best of 2012. [14]

Biography

Early education

Abbey Rader was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and raised in the Bronx where he moved when he was six months old. His introduction to drumming began early, as his father was a band leader and drummer. Rader started playing traditional jazz gigs in the early 1960s, typically piano/bass/drum or saxophone/organ/drum trios, which exposed him to a variety of musicians that subtly influenced his style.

His education went beyond music into spirituality. Rader met drummer Clarence "Scoby" Strohman while playing opposite the Marin Rivers trio. Strohman introduced Rader to books like Light on the Path by Mabel Collins and Paramahansa Yogananda's The Autobiography of a Yogi, which helped begin Rader's spiritual journey. Rader recalls an anecdote that touched his confidence as well. "My music reading skills were not very good, but Scoby had lots of faith in me. He stood behind me on the bandstand one night as I started to play acts with lots of music to read. Scoby said, "That's not a problem for you. That's nothing for you." I played remarkably well that night. I said to Scoby, "Did you see those difficult charts I read?", and he said he couldn't read a note. So I learned something else about the spiritual power and the power of the mind." [15]

Rader recalls that hearing John Coltrane's quartet with Elvin Jones at the Half Note Club was a moment that changed his musical expression to improvisation and searching for the union between mind, spirit, and body. [16]

Living in Europe

The free jazz in style at the time influenced Rader. He started playing in the mid-70s loft jazz movement, which led him to create his first album as a band leader, a recording entitled The Thing. He decided that to continue to play his free style of music, moving to Europe would provide opportunities not available in the U.S. With nothing but a drum set and $500, he traveled to London and later published The Thing for Atmosphere Records while in Paris. [17]

From France, he moved to Germany, initially playing with Bob Lenox in Lenox's rock and funk pieces. His desire to continue playing free jazz brought Rader to drumming with George Bishop in improvised duet performances. In the 1980s, he worked with alto saxophonist, John Handy; violinist, L. Subramaniam; and bassist, Sigi Busch. Handy encouraged Rader to play powerfully, asking him to play drum solos behind his saxophone as they toured Europe. Later, Rader spent five years in the Gunter Hampel Big Band that included Jeanne Lee and Marion Brown. Rader's next lesson came from playing with Mal Waldron and Marc Levin, a NYC friend, on trumpet. As Rader described, Mal often helped Rader put life's tribulations in perspective and encouraged him to play freely, to transform the energy he might be feeling by channeling it into his drumming. [16]

During this time, Rader started his Abbey Rader's Right Time band. He recorded several times with this band and established record label Abray Productions. [18] [19] He also became a touring clinician for Sonor and Tosco (later Sabian, see: UFIP) cymbals, and taught at multiple universities in Germany. During his teaching, he frequently featured improvisational artists he worked with to teach how to improvise on music tracks a band may play. [20]

Returning to America

Rader met his wife and raised two sons in Germany, and then moved to South Florida in 1989. In the 1990s and 2000s he recorded with David Liebman, putting out four CDs together. He then spent nearly five years with violinist Billy Bang in the Jazz Doctors. In this group, Rader replaced recently deceased Dennis Charles; other band members included Frank Lowe on saxophone and bass player Ed Schuller. While doing a sound check for the Vision Festival in memory of Dennis Charles, Rader had the fortune of meeting Billy Higgins. Higgins was getting the stage ready for a drum choir and encouraged Rader to get his drum set, after which they began an impromptu drum performance. Later, Rader recorded "One for Jazz" with Bang and Lowe in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. He spent much of his time touring the East Coast of the U.S, including Charleston, South Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, and the Zeitgeist Art Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. [21]

Most recently, Rader has been performing with John McMinn, Noah Brandmark, Kyle Motl, and Kidd Jordan. [22] [23]

These experiences, and his current performances, continue to influence Abbey Rader's style of music. He draws on his traditional jazz roots to create a "circular feeling...[with] a lot of polyrythmn between cymbals, bass drum, and snare drum", which he employs to play with other musicians to free himself from the original way of drumming and ultimately himself. [15] [24]

Rader has recorded and performed with Laurindo Almeida, Billy Bang, George Bishop, Marion Brown, Cameron Brown, Sigi Busch, Marty Cook, Roy Cumming, Herman Foster, Joe Gallivan, Philip Gelb, Rainer Glas, Mack Goldsbury, Gunter Hampel, John Handy, Luc Houtkamp, Leonard Jones, Kidd Jordan, Peter Kuhn, Jeanne Lee, Bob Lenox, Marc Levin, David Liebman, Frank Lowe, Keshavan Maslak, Ron McClure, Kim Mikkelson, Peck Morrison, Peter Ponzol, Ed Schuller, Ken Simon, Dr. L. Subramaniam, Mal Waldron, David Wertman, Joerg Widmoser, Leszek Zadlo, and Joe Zeytoonian. [25]

Spiritual influence

In 1975, Rader met Reverend Sheng-yen, who would become his lifetime teacher and recurring influence in all aspects of his life. Through his Buddhist studies under Sheng-yen, Rader received Dharma name Guo Hsing, meaning "fruit of good fortune". [26] Rader's practice involved many weeklong retreats at the Temple of Enlightenment in Queens, New York, and as one of 130 on November 19, 2006 at Dharma Drum Retreat Center, both founded by Sheng-yen. His studies included Ch'an meditation that is focused on clearing the mind and embracing impermanence.

Rader incorporated these practices in his style of improvised music. As explained by Rader, in an Avant Music News interview, "in music, if you have the technique well built...and want to improvise freely, you must empty your mind to...interplay spontaneously with the other musicians and allow the music to come through you. This to me is the correlation between the freer music and the Buddhist empty mind practice." [15]

Martial arts influence

In New York City's East Village in 1964, Rader started studying Nisei Goju Ryu, an Okinawan form of Karate at the University of the Streets. His teachers were grandmaster Frank Ruiz and John Giordano. Lessons included vow making, bowing, and traditional meditation practices to focus the mind. By the early 1970s, Rader achieved a black-belt level and started studying under Rick "The Fireman" Joslin, a frequent performer at The World of Martial Arts show put on by Aaron Banks. His training then took on a "street-style" of self-defense without the use of traditional uniforms or colored-belt achievements. [26]

In the early 2000s, Rader started practicing Qigong and Taiji under the tutelage of Wei Zhong Foo and Dororthy Chong. He then continued his studies at the International Buddhist Progress Society Temple under Robert Cheng. Rader later took over teaching at this Temple after Cheng departed.

Rader's next teacher was Chen Ji Fan and after years under his instruction and at his encouragement, Rader began teaching Yang-style tai chi, standing ( zhan zhuang ) meditation, and sitting meditation, starting his Fearless Mind School. [27] Rader states that he is inspired by these practices to enter a state of "empty mind", which allow him to embrace spontaneity in life and music. [16] [28]

Teaching

Rader taught the first jazz drumming course at several universities in Germany during the 1980s. His teaching concentrated on rudiments to enable students to develop the facility to independently move their hands and feet. Each class had at least two drum sets where Rader and the students would play together, trading fours and eights, learning about song form and melodic playing. Rader exposed students to other forms of music (like blues and his experience with jazz and lounge bands), often introducing them to saxophone or trumpet players he's worked with, to expand their musical knowledge and fidelity. [1]

He has taught at Detmold Hochschule, Musikschule Einbeck, PH Göttingen, and TU Braunschweig. [29]

Discography

As leader

As sideman

[30] [31]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Wertico</span> American drummer (born 1953)

Paul Wertico is an American drummer. He gained recognition as a member of the Pat Metheny Group from 1983 until 2001, leaving the group to spend more time with his family and to pursue other musical interests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ornette Coleman</span> American jazz musician and composer (1930–2015)

Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. His pioneering works often abandoned the harmony-based composition, tonality, chord changes, and fixed rhythm found in earlier jazz idioms. Instead, Coleman emphasized an experimental approach to improvisation rooted in ensemble playing and blues phrasing. Thom Jurek of AllMusic called him "one of the most beloved and polarizing figures in jazz history," noting that while "now celebrated as a fearless innovator and a genius, he was initially regarded by peers and critics as rebellious, disruptive, and even a fraud."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Roach</span> American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer (1924–2007)

Maxwell Lemuel Roach was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Clifford Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, and Booker Little. He also played with his daughter Maxine Roach, a Grammy nominated violist. He was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Scofield</span> American jazz guitarist and composer (born 1951)

John Scofield is an American guitarist and composer. His music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention as part of the band of Miles Davis; he has toured and recorded with many prominent jazz artists including saxophonists Eddie Harris, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, and Joe Lovano; keyboardists George Duke, Joey DeFrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Larry Goldings, and Robert Glasper; fellow guitarists Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Pat Martino, and Bill Frisell; bassists Marc Johnson and Jaco Pastorius; and drummers Billy Cobham and Dennis Chambers. Outside the world of jazz, he has collaborated with Phil Lesh, Mavis Staples, John Mayer, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Gov't Mule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vision Festival</span> Annual festival of experimental music, art, film and dance held in New York City

The Vision Festival is the world's premier festival of experimental music, art, film and dance, held annually in May/June on the Lower East Side of New York City from 1996 to 2011, in Brooklyn from 2012 to 2014, and returning to Manhattan in 2015. It usually consists of between thirty and sixty performances, spread out over a number of days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Altschul</span> American drummer

Barry Altschul is a free jazz and hard bop drummer who first came to notice in the late 1960s for performing with pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea.

<i>The Shape of Jazz to Come</i> 1959 studio album by Ornette Coleman

The Shape of Jazz to Come is the third album by the jazz musician Ornette Coleman. Released on Atlantic Records in 1959, it was his debut on the label and his first album featuring the working quartet including himself, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins. The recording session for the album took place on May 22, 1959, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California. Although Coleman initially wished for the album to be titled Focus on Sanity after the LP's fourth track, Atlantic producer Nesuhi Ertegun suggested the final title, feeling that it would give consumers "an idea about the uniqueness of the LP."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Liebman</span> American saxophonist, flautist and jazz educator (born 1946)

David Liebman is an American saxophonist, flautist and jazz educator. He is known for his innovative lines and use of atonality. He was a frequent collaborator with pianist Richie Beirach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Abercrombie (guitarist)</span> American jazz guitarist (1944–2017)

John Laird Abercrombie was an American jazz guitarist. His work explored jazz fusion, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Abercrombie studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He was known for his understated style and his work with organ trios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellery Eskelin</span> American tenor saxophonist

Ellery Eskelin is an American tenor saxophonist raised in Baltimore, Maryland and residing in New York City. His parents, Rodd Keith and Bobbie Lee, were both professional musicians. Rodd Keith died in 1974 in Los Angeles, California, and became a cult figure after his death in the little-known field of "song-poem" music. Organist Bobbie Lee performed in local nightclubs in Baltimore in the early 1960s and provided Eskelin an introduction to standards from the Great American Songbook as well as inspiring an early interest in jazz music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Kuhn</span> American jazz musician

Steve Kuhn is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator.

<i>Ascension</i> (John Coltrane album) 1966 studio album by John Coltrane

Ascension is a jazz album by John Coltrane recorded in June 1965 and released in 1966. It is considered a watershed in Coltrane's work, with the albums recorded before it being more conventional in structure and the albums recorded after it being looser, free jazz inspired works. In addition, it signaled Coltrane's interest in moving away from the quartet format. AllMusic called it "the single recording that placed John Coltrane firmly into the avant-garde".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Shaughnessy</span> American jazz drummer (1929–2013)

Edwin Thomas "Ed" Shaughnessy was a swing music and jazz drummer long associated with Doc Severinsen and a member of The Tonight Show Band on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

<i>The Avant-Garde</i> (album) 1966 studio album by John Coltrane and Don Cherry

The Avant-Garde is an album credited to jazz musicians John Coltrane and Don Cherry that was released in 1966 by Atlantic Records. It features Coltrane playing several compositions by Ornette Coleman accompanied by the members of Coleman's quartet: Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell. The album was assembled from two unissued recording sessions at Atlantic Studios in New York City in 1960.

Roger Frampton was an Australian jazz pianist, saxophonist, composer, and educator. Based in Sydney, he played a major role in shaping the evolution of Australian jazz. He taught at the Jazz Studies course at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and also became Head of Jazz Studies during the late 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Moses (musician)</span> American jazz drummer

Bob Moses is an American jazz drummer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petter Wettre</span> Norwegian jazz saxophonist and composer

Petter Wettre is a Norwegian Jazz musician (Saxophone) and composer, known from a number of album recordings, accompanied by receiving the Spellemannprisen two times.

Timothy M. Ries is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, band leader, and music educator at the collegiate/conservatory level. Ries is in his eighteenth year as a professor of jazz studies at the University of Toronto. His universe of work as composer, arranger, and instrumentalist ranges from rock to jazz to classical to experimental to ethno to fusions of respective genres thereof. His notable works with wide popularity include The Rolling Stones Project, a culmination of jazz arrangements of music by the Rolling Stones produced on two albums, the first in 2005 and the second in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Jennings (musician)</span> Musical artist

Chris Jennings is a Canadian jazz double bassist, composer, arranger and educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Middleton</span> American musician

Andy Middleton is an American tenor and soprano jazz saxophonist. He has recorded with Ralph Towner, Dave Holland, Kenny Wheeler, Renee Rosnes, Jamey Haddad, Joey Calderazzo, and Alan Jones.

References

  1. 1 2 Fish, Scott K (January 1984). "Portraits: Abbey Rader". Modern Drummer . 8 (1): 56, 58.
  2. ↑ "Artist Biography - Abbey Rader". Zildjian . Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  3. ↑ Weinberg, Bob (April 10, 2012). "Generations Quartet: Under the radar, under the overpass". Sun-Sentinel . Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Abbey Rader- Biography". abbeyrader.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Avant Music News Best of 2015". Avant Music News. July 8, 2015. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Abbey Rader from New York". Artist Trove. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  7. ↑ Malagodi, Stephen (November 17, 2012). "Abbey Rader Quartet with Kidd Jordan - Live in Miami". You Tube. Retrieved 27 Jul 2016.
  8. ↑ Attarian, Hrayr (August 26, 2014). "Abbey Rader: The Message (2014)". All About Jazz. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  9. ↑ Fields, Tracy. "Evenin' Jazz with Tracy Fields". WLRN.org. WLRN Miami. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "Avant Music News Best of 2014". Avant Music News. December 15, 2014. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Avant Music News Best of 2013". Avant Music News. December 17, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  12. ↑ Attarian, Hrayr (December 24, 2013). "Abbey Rader: Reach for the Skies (2013)". All About Jazz. Retrieved August 15, 2014.
  13. ↑ Corroto, Mark (December 18, 2013). "Abbey Rader: Reach for the Skies (2013)". All About Jazz. Retrieved August 15, 2014.
  14. ↑ Borella, Mike (December 3, 2012). "Avant Music News Best of 2012". Avant Music News. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  15. 1 2 3 Borella, Mike (October 25, 2013). "AMN Interviews: Abbey Rader". Avant Music News. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  16. 1 2 3 "Abbey Rader: Get Free, A Documentary Film". Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Interview: Abbey Rader". Drums and Percussion Magazine. June 1982.
  18. ↑ Weiland, Chris (February 1993). "International Experience Helps Drummer Give Jazz a New Spin". Sun Sentinel.
  19. ↑ "Abray Productions - Abbey Rader". Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  20. ↑ Ballhorn, Angela (June 1999). "The Drum is a World". Jazzthetik.
  21. ↑ Weinberg, Bob (December 1, 1999). "Below the Radar: Drummer Abbey Rader has to Keep Moving to Keep Moving". City Link.
  22. ↑ "Abbey Rader's Generations Quartet with Kidd Jordan". All About Jazz. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  23. ↑ "Kidd Jordan Abbey Rader Quartet". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 31 August 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  24. ↑ Getterlman, Parry (November 1997). "Mystic Journey has Serene Spiritual Quality". Orlando Sentinel.
  25. ↑ "ProMark". promark.com. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  26. 1 2 "Biography: Martial Arts & Buddhism - Abbey Rader". Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved August 15, 2014.
  27. ↑ "Fearless Mind School". abbeyrader.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  28. ↑ Feller, Stephen (August 11, 2010). "Jazz drummer, martial artist leads Fearless Minds" (PDF). The Forum. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
  29. ↑ "Marco Minnemann". drumsontheweb.com. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  30. ↑ "Discography - Abbey Rader". AllMusic . Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  31. ↑ "Discography". abbeyrader.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2014.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.