Tom Abbs | |
---|---|
Born | 1972 (age 51–52) Seattle, Washington |
Genres | Avant-garde jazz |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Double bass, tuba, cello, violin, didgeridoo, flute |
Labels | ESP-Disk, Northern Spy |
Tom Abbs (born 1972) is an American multi-instrumentalist and filmmaker. He works primarily in jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation, and plays double bass, tuba, cello, violin, didgeridoo, and wooden flute, often playing several instruments simultaneously. [1]
A native of Seattle, Washington, Abbs attended The New School, studying with Reggie Workman, Buster Williams, Joe Chambers, Brian Smith, Junior Mance, Arnie Lawrence, Chico Hamilton, and Arthur Taylor. He began his performing career in 1992.
He has worked with Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Charles Gayle, Daniel Carter, Cooper-Moore, Steve Swell, Roy Campbell, Jr., Sabir Mateen, Ori Kaplan, Jemeel Moondoc, Assif Tsahar, Borah Bergman, Billy Bang, Andrew Lamb, and Warren Smith. Abbs is a member of Triptych Myth, Yuganaut, and Transmitting (with Napoleon Maddox and Jane LeCroy). He leads the band Frequency Response and tours with his solo multimedia act Multifarious. He has collaborated with the painter M. P. Landis. [2]
Abbs is the founder of the arts coalition Jump Arts, which presented performances and workshops throughout New York City from 1997 to 2002.
He was the general manager of ESP-Disk from 2007 to 2010 and founded Northern Spy Records which he co-owns with Adam Downey.
William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist. Beginning in the 1980s, Parker played with Cecil Taylor for over a decade, and he has led the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra since 1981. The Village Voice named him "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time" and DownBeat has called him "one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz".
Sabir Mateen is an American musician and composer from Philadelphia. His musical style is primarily avant-garde jazz. He plays tenor and alto saxophone, B♭ and alto clarinet, and flute.
Roy Sinclair Campbell Jr. was an American trumpeter frequently linked to free jazz, although he also performed rhythm and blues and funk during his career.
Steve Swell is an American free jazz trombonist, composer, and educator.
Rashid Bakr is an American free jazz drummer.
Jemeel Moondoc was a jazz saxophonist who played alto saxophone. He was a proponent of a highly improvisational style.
Creative Improvised Music Projects, usually abbreviated CIMP or C.I.M.P., is an American jazz record company and label. It is associated with Cadence Magazine and Cadence Jazz Records. The label is noted for its minimal use of electronic processing and its spare microphoning technique. Bob Rusch founded CIMP in 1995, with his son Marc Rusch as the recording engineer and his daughter Kara Rusch producing cover art.
First Feeding is the debut album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc with the Ensemble Muntu, which was recorded in 1977 and released on his own Muntu label. The album was reissued in 2009 as part of the three-CD box Muntu Recordings on the Lithuanian NoBusiness label.
The Evening of the Blue Men is an album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc with Muntu, which was recorded live in 1979 at NYC's St. Mark's Church and released on his own Muntu label. The album was reissued in 2009 as part of the three-CD box Muntu Recordings on the Lithuanian NoBusiness label. This second Muntu unit, a pianoless quartet consisting of Moondoc, trumpeter Roy Campbell, bassist William Parker and drummer Rashid Bakr, made its first performance in December 1978 at Ali's Alley.
New World Pygmies is an album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc and bassist William Parker, which was recorded live at the Fire in the Valley Festival in 1998 and released on the Eremite label. It was Moondoc's first recorded encounter with Parker since Nostalgia in Times Square. "Another Angel Goes Home" is a tribute to drummer Denis Charles.
Spirit House is an album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, which was recorded live in 2000 at the Magic Triangle Jazz Series organized by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and released on the Eremite label. It was the debut recording by the Jus Grew Orchestra, a large ensemble founded by Moondoc in the early 80s. For this concert Moondoc studied Butch Morris's conduction techniques of guided improvisation with hand gestures. Morris was the original conductor of the band.
Live at the Vision Festival is an album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, which was recorded live at the 2001 Vision Festival and released on Ayler Records, a Swedish label founded by Jan Ström and Åke Bjurhamn. It was the second recording by the Jus Grew Orchestra, a large ensemble founded by Moondoc in the early 80s.
Live at Glenn Miller Café Vol 1 is an album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, which was recorded in Stockholm and released on Ayler Records, a Swedish label founded by Jan Ström and Åke Bjurhamn. Moondoc leads a trio with bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake. The rhythm section had recorded the studio album ...and William Danced a few hours earlier with local saxophonist Anders Gahnold.
The Zookeeper's House is an album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, which was recorded in 2013 and released on Relative Pitch Records. It was his first album leading a full band in over a decade.
Hilliard Greene is an American bassist specializing in modern creative, improvised, and jazz music, as well as a music educator.
This Now! is an album by American jazz trombonist Steve Swell, which was recorded live in 2001 and released on Cadence Jazz. He leads the Unified Theory of Sound, a sextet with Jemeel Moondoc on alto sax, Matt Lavelle on trumpet, Cooper-Moore on piano, Wilber Morris on bass and Kevin Norton on drums.
Eremite Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1995 by Michael Ehlers, with early involvement from music writer Byron Coley. Ehlers was a student of Archie Shepp's at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After college, he began producing concerts in the Amherst area, and Eremite evolved from those events. The label name came from an alternate title to the Thelonious Monk tune "Reflections": "Portrait of an Eremite". The label's logo, designed by Savage Pencil, is an image of a robed Joe McPhee playing soprano saxophone. Eremite organized a concert series in Western Massachusetts that ran through 2008 and produced roughly 100 concerts, including five Fire in the Valley festivals. From 1998–2018, Eremite managed a touring organization that arranged hundreds of concerts across North America for its artists.
John Blum is an American jazz pianist and composer.
Chad Taylor is an American drummer, percussionist, and composer. Taylor leads both the Chad Taylor Trio with Brian Settles and Neil Podgurski and Circle Down with Angelica Sanchez and Chris Lightcap. He is a founding member of the Chicago Underground along with Jeff Parker and Rob Mazurek.
Titration is the debut album by the free improvisation ensemble Active Ingredients. Led by drummer Chad Taylor, it features alto saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, trombonist Steve Swell, and double bassist Tom Abbs, as well as guest artists Rob Mazurek (cornet), David Boykin, and Avreeayl Ra (percussion). The album was recorded on July 5 and 6, 2002, and was released in 2003 by Delmark Records.