Abstract Logix | |
---|---|
Founded | 2003 |
Founder | Souvik Dutta |
Genre | Jazz fusion, World music, Jam band |
Country of origin | United States |
Location | Cary, North Carolina |
Official website | www |
Abstract Logix is an American record label, based in Cary, North Carolina, [1] which specializes in jazz fusion, world and jam band music. As of mid 2023, Abstract Logix has released 70 titles from musicians spanning the globe. [2] In 2019 they were voted "Best Record Label" in the JazzTimes Magazine Readers' Poll. [3]
The company began as a music blog started by music enthusiast and computer programmer Souvik Dutta in 2002. [4] The blog began by making available a recording of a house concert featuring Shawn Lane, Jonas Hellborg, and Jeff Sipe. [5] From there, Dutta branched out into direct sales and merchandising, becoming the exclusive retailer for a 3-DVD set by fusion guitarist John McLaughlin entitled This Is the Way I Do It and handling merchandising for McLaughlin's tours, while continuing to write code for IBM. [4]
Abstract Logix's first two releases were Lincoln Memorial by Project Z (featuring Jimmy Herring, Greg Osby, Ricky Keller, and Jeff Sipe) in 2005 and Alex Machacek's [Sic] in 2006. Dutta's relationship with McLaughlin resulted in the guitarist's Floating Point being released on the label in 2008. In 2010, Dutta described Abstract Logix's roster as "musical pioneers and visionaries, old and young. Our clients include Grammy winners and musical icons like John McLaughlin, as well as young and upcoming icons of tomorrow like Alex Machacek, Jimmy Herring, and Wayne Krantz, among others." [6]
Other notable musicians to record for Abstract Logix include Lenny White, Gary Husband, Anthony Jackson, Scott Kinsey, and Ranjit Barot. The Abstract Logix website also sells independent releases by a number of other fusion, world, and progressive artists. Speaking to The Telegraph, Dutta reflected, "We are fortunate to work with innovative musicians who are on the cutting edge and always evolving". [7]
The label's first Grammy Award-winning release was McLaughlin's Live @ Ronnie Scott's, which received the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Improvised Jazz Solo for McLaughlin's performance on the track "Miles Beyond". [8] In February 2024, Abstract Logix received their second Grammy for the album This Moment by Shakti, which won the Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album. [9]
Catalog number | Artist | Title | Year |
---|---|---|---|
ABLX-001 | Project Z | Lincoln Memorial | 2005 |
ABLX-002 | Alex Machacek | [Sic] | 2006 |
ABLX-003 | Scott Kinsey | Kinesthetics | 2006 |
ABLX-004 | Slaughterhouse 3 | S3 | 2006 |
ABLX-005 | Jeff Babko | Mondo Trio | 2007 |
ABLX-006 | Gary Willis | Actual Fiction | 2007 |
ABLX-007 | Alex Machacek, Jeff Sipe, Matthew Garrison | Improvision | 2007 |
ABLX-009 | Paul Hanson | Frolic in the Land of Plenty | 2008 |
ABLX-010 | Tony Grey | Chasing Shadows | 2008 |
ABLX-011 | John McLaughlin | Floating Point | 2008 |
ABLX-012 | John McLaughlin | Meeting of the Minds: The Making of Floating Point DVD | 2008 |
ABLX-013 | Jimmy Herring | Lifeboat | 2008 |
ABLX-014 | Alex Machacek / Jeff Sipe / Neal Fountain | The Official Triangle Sessions | 2008 |
ABLX-015 | Gary Husband’s Drive | Hotwired | 2008 |
ABLX-016 | John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension | Live @ Belgrade | 2009 |
ABLX-017 | Sebastiaan Cornelissen | U-Turn | 2009 |
ABLX-018 | Wayne Krantz | Krantz Carlock Lefebvre | 2009 |
ABLX-019 | Ranjit Barot | BAda Boom | 2008 |
ABLX-020 | Anthony Jackson and Yiorgos Fakanas | Interspirit | 2010 |
ABLX-022 | Lenny White | Anomaly | 2010 |
ABLX-025 | Prasanna | Raga Bop Trio | 2010 |
ABLX-026 | John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension | To the One | 2010 |
ABLX-027 | Gary Husband | Dirty & Beautiful Volume 1 | 2010 |
ABLX-028 | Human Element | Human Element | 2010 |
ABLX-024 | Alex Machacek and Marco Minnemann | 24 Tales | 2010 |
ABLX-030 | Various Artists | Abstract Logix Live! The New Universe Music Festival 2010 CD | 2008 |
ABLX-031 | Various Artists | Abstract Logix Live! The New Universe Music Festival 2010 DVD | 2008 |
ABLX-032 | Oz Noy | Twisted Blues | 2011 |
ABLX-033 | Gary Husband | Dirty & Beautiful Volume 2 | 2012 |
ABLX-034 | Wayne Krantz | Howie 61 | 2012 |
ABLX-035 | Jimmy Herring | Subject to Change Without Notice | 2012 |
ABLX-036 | Alex Machacek, Raphael Preuschi, Herbert Pirker | Fat | 2012 |
ABLX-037 | John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension | Now Here This | 2012 |
ABLX-038 | Gary Willis | Retro | 2013 |
ABLX-040 | Tony Grey | Elevation | 2013 |
ABLX-041 | Gary Husband and Alex Machacek | Now | 2013 |
ABLX-042 | John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension | The Boston Record | 2014 |
ABLX-043 | Oz Noy | Twisted Blues Volume 2 | 2014 |
ABLX-044 | Chingari | Bombay Makossa | 2014 |
ABLX-045 | Jeff Sipe, Mike Seal, and Taylor Lee | Jeff Sipe Trio | 2014 |
ABLX-046 | Gary Husband | Dirty and Beautiful Volume 1 - Special Remix Edition | 2014 |
ABLX-047 | Wayne Krantz | Good Piranha / Bad Piranha | 2014 |
ABLX-048 | Oz Noy, Dave Weckl, Etienne M’Bappe | Asian Twist | 2015 |
ABLX-049 | Gary Willis | Larger Than Life | 2015 |
ABLX-050 | John McLaughlin | Black Light | 2015 |
ABLX-053 | Scott Kinsey | Near Life Experience | 2016 |
ABLX-055 | Etienne M’Bappe and the Prophets | How Near How Far | 2016 |
ABLX-056 | King Baby | The Big Galoot | 2017 |
ABLX-057 | Oz Noy | Ozone Squeeze | 2017 |
ABLX-058 | John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension | Live @ Ronnie Scotts | 2017 |
ABLX-059 | John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension / Jimmy Herring and the Invisible Whip | Live in San Francisco | 2018 |
ABLX-060 | Oz Noy | Booga Looga Loo | 2019 |
ABLX-061 | John McLaughlin, Shankar Mahadevan, Zakir Hussain | Is That So? | 2020 |
ABLX-062 | Wayne Krantz | Write out Your Head | 2020 |
ABLX-063 | Oz Noy | Snapdragon | 2020 |
ABLX-064 | Wayne Krantz | Music Room 1985 | 2021 |
ABLX-065 | John McLaughlin | Liberation Time | 2021 |
ABLX-066 | The Trackers featuring Gary Husband and Alf Terje Hana | Vaudeville 8:45 | 2022 |
ABLX-067 | Debashish Bhattacharya | The Sound of the Soul | 2023 |
ABLX-068 | Shakti | This Moment | 2023 |
ABLX-069 | Ozone Squeeze (Oz Noy, Rai Thistlethwayte, Sara Niemietz, and Darren Stanley) | Squeeze It | 2023 |
ABLX-070 | Oz Noy featuring Dennis Chambers and Jimmy Haslip | Triple Play | 2023 |
Floating Point is an album by John McLaughlin, released in 2008 through the record label Abstract Logix. The album reached number fourteen on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart.
Jazz fusion is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyboards that were popular in rock and roll started to be used by jazz musicians, particularly those who had grown up listening to rock and roll.
Jonas Hellborg is a Swedish bass guitarist. He has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Ustad Sultan Khan, Fazal Qureshi, Bill Laswell, Shawn Lane, Jens Johansson, Anders Johansson, Ginger Baker, Michael Shrieve, V. Selvaganesh, Jeff Sipe, Mattias IA Eklundh, Public Image Ltd, and Buckethead.
John McLaughlin, also known as Mahavishnu, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
Jimmy Herring is an American guitarist, known as the lead guitarist for the band Widespread Panic since 2006. He is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Jazz Is Dead and has played with The Allman Brothers Band, Project Z, Derek Trucks Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, and The Dead.
Joey DeFrancesco was an American jazz organist, trumpeter, saxophonist, and occasional singer. He released more than 30 albums under his own name, and recorded extensively as a sideman with such leading jazz performers as trumpeter Miles Davis, saxophonist Houston Person, and guitarist John McLaughlin.
Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist, keyboard player and bandleader. He is also a composer, arranger and producer.
Alex Machacek is an Austrian jazz fusion guitarist.
[Sic] is a jazz-fusion album released in 2006 by Austrian guitarist Alex Machacek. The album features drummer Terry Bozzio.
Jeff Sipe, also known as Apt. Q258, is an American drummer. He works mainly in rock and jazz fusion. He is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit with Bruce Hampton. He was a member of Leftover Salmon and the Zambiland Orchestra, an experimental big band with members of Phish and Widespread Panic. He has toured with Trey Anastasio, Jeff Coffin, Jimmy Herring, Warren Haynes, Keller Williams, John McLaughlin, and guitarist Shawn Lane.
To the One is an album released by British jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. It is his first album with his band, the 4th Dimension. The album was released in 2010 on Abstract Logix Records and was produced by McLaughlin. It reached number 27 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart and was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
Project Z was an American indie rock, jazz fusion, and jam band, active in the early 2000s.
Lincoln Memorial is the second album by Project Z. It was recorded in March 2002 at ZAC Recording Studio in Atlanta, Georgia, and was released in 2005 by Abstract Logix. On the album, core Project Z members Jimmy Herring (guitar), Ricky Keller (bass), and Jeff Sipe (drums) are joined by guest artists Greg Osby (saxophone) and Jason Crosby (keyboards).
Lifeboat is an album by guitarist Jimmy Herring. His first release as a leader, it was recorded in Georgia, United States, and was issued by Abstract Logix in 2008. On the album, Herring is joined by keyboardist and flutist Kofi Burbridge, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and drummer Jeff Sipe, along with guest musicians Greg Osby (saxophone), Derek Trucks, Bobby Lee Rodgers, Ike Stubblefield (organ), Scott Kinsey (organ), Matt Slocum (keyboards), and Tyler Greenwell (drums).
Jeff Sipe Trio is the debut album by the group of the same name, led by drummer Jeff Sipe. It was recorded in August and September, 2013, at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and was released in 2014 by Abstract Logix. On the album, Sipe is joined by guitarist Mike Seal and bassist Taylor Lee.
Liberation Time is a studio album by British jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. The album was recorded in various locations and released on 16 July 2021 via Abstract Logix. The album's personnel includes members of McLaughlin’s current ensemble named 4th Dimension: Gary Husband on drums and piano, Etienne Mbappé on bass, Ranjit Barot on drums and Konokol vocals—in addition to invited musicians.
Subject to Change Without Notice is an album by guitarist Jimmy Herring. His second release as a leader, it was recorded in Georgia, United States, and was issued on LP and CD by Abstract Logix in 2012. On the album, which was produced by John Keane, Herring is joined by keyboardist Matt Slocum, bassists Neal Fountain and Etienne Mbappe, and drummer Jeff Sipe, along with guest musicians Bill Evans (saxophone), Béla Fleck (banjo), Tyler Greenwell (drums), Carter Herring (cello), Nicky Sanders (violin), and Ike Stubblefield (organ).
Live in San Francisco is a live album by guitarists John McLaughlin and Jimmy Herring. It was recorded at The Warfield in San Francisco, California, on December 8, 2017, and was released in 2018 by Abstract Logix. The musicians are joined by an ensemble that combines McLaughlin's band the 4th Dimension with Herring's band the Invisible Whip.
Improvision is an album by guitarist Alex Machacek, drummer Jeff Sipe, and bassist Matthew Garrison. It was recorded in April 2007, and was released later that year by Abstract Logix.
24 Tales is an album by guitarist Alex Machacek which is based on a 51-minute drum solo by German drummer Marco Minnemann. It was released in 2010 by Abstract Logix. Machacek's wife Sumitra Nanjundan provides vocals on one track, and trombonist Martin Ptak appears on three tracks.