Tom Abbs is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 multi-instrumentalist and filmmaker. He works primarily in the fields of jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, free jazz

Free jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...

, and free improvisation

Free improvisation

Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....

, and plays double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

, tuba

Tuba

The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...

, cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

, violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, didgeridoo

Didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...

, and wooden flute, often playing several of these instruments simultaneously.

Originally from Washington state, he has lived New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 since 1991, and is based in Brooklyn, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. He attended The New School

The New School

The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...

's Jazz and Contemporary Music program, studying with Reggie Workman

Reggie Workman

Reginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....

, Buster Williams

Buster Williams

Charles Anthony Williams is an American jazz bassist.-Biography:Williams has gained prestige among jazz musicians as a solid supportive player. Since the early 1960s, he has made subtle swing, a precise rhythm and superb technique the landmark of his playing...

, Joe Chambers

Joe Chambers

Joe Chambers is an American jazz drummer, pianist, vibraphonist and composer. He attended the Philadelphia Conservatory for one year. In the 1960s and 70s Chambers gigged with many high-profile artists such as Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Lou Donaldson, Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Giuffre...

, Brian Smith

Brian Smith (musician)

Brian Smith is a jazz saxophonist and flautist from New Zealand.Smith studied piano in his youth but was primarily an autodidact on reeds. He played locally in pop and jazz groups before moving to England in 1964, where he played with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated...

, Junior Mance

Junior Mance

Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. is an American jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...

, Arnie Lawrence

Arnie Lawrence

Arnold Lawrence Finkelstein, better known as Arnie Lawrence was an American jazz saxophonist....

, Chico Hamilton

Chico Hamilton

Chico Hamilton , is an American jazz drummer and bandleader.-Early life through 1960s:Hamilton was born in Los Angeles, California. He had a fast-track musical education in a band with Charles Mingus, Illinois Jacquet, Ernie Royal, Dexter Gordon, Buddy Collette and Jack Kelso...

, and Arthur Taylor

Art Taylor

Arthur S. Taylor, Jr. was an American jazz drummer of the hard bop school.After playing in the bands of Howard McGhee, Coleman Hawkins, Buddy DeFranco, Bud Powell, and George Wallington from 1948 to 1957, he formed his own group, the Wailers...

. He began his full-time performing career in 1992.

He has worked with Lawrence "Butch" Morris

Butch Morris

Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris is an American jazz cornetist, composer and conductor.-Biography:Before his musical career, Morris served in Vietnam during the Vietnam War....

, Charles Gayle

Charles Gayle

Charles Gayle is a free jazz saxophonist, pianist, bass clarinetist, and percussionist.-Biography:Charles Gayle was born in Buffalo, New York. Some of Gayle's history is unclear. He was apparently homeless for approximately twenty years, playing saxophone on street corners and subway platforms...

, Daniel Carter

Daniel Carter (musician)

Daniel Carter is an American free jazz saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet player active mainly in New York City since the early 1970s...

, Cooper-Moore

Cooper-Moore

Cooper-Moore is an American jazz pianist, composer and instrument builder/designer based in New York City. He began performing church music in the Piedmont region of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In 1970, he formed a collective trio, Apogee, with saxophonist David S. Ware and drummer Marc...

, Steve Swell

Steve Swell

Steve Swell is an American free jazz trombonist and composer.Swell studied at Jersey City State College before moving to New York City in 1975 where he began his musical life, playing in top 40 bands, salsa bands, big bands and performed on Broadway in Bob Fosse's "Dancin""...

, Roy Campbell, Jr., Sabir Mateen

Sabir Mateen

Sabir Mateen is a musician and composer from Philadelphia who plays primarily in the avant-garde jazz idiom. He plays tenor and alto saxophone, B♭ and alto clarinet, and flute....

, Ori Kaplan

Ori Kaplan

Ori Kaplan is a jazz saxophonist from Israel. He moved to the United States in 1991. He has worked with Tom Abbs and the Balkan Beat Box.-Career:...

, Jemeel Moondoc

Jemeel Moondoc

Jemeel Moondoc is a jazz saxophonist who plays alto saxophone. He is a proponent of a highly improvisational style....

, Assif Tsahar

Assif Tsahar

Assif Tsahar is an Israeli tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist. He has lived in New York City since 1990.He has performed with Cecil Taylor, Butch Morris, William Parker, Mat Maneri, Hamid Drake, Peter Kowald, Susie Ibarra, Rashied Ali, Warren Smith, Wilbur Morris, Le Quan Ninh, John Tchicai,...

, Borah Bergman

Borah Bergman

Borah Bergman is an American free jazz pianist.Bergman learned clarinet as a child, and did not commence studies on piano until adulthood. He developed his left hand playing to the point where he became essentially ambidextrous as a pianist, and can play equally fast in both hands...

, Billy Bang

Billy Bang

Billy Bang was an American free jazz violinist and composer.-Biography:...

, Andrew Lamb

Andrew Lamb

Andrew Lamb , bishop of Brechin and bishop of Galloway, was probably son or relative of Andrew Lamb of Leith, a lay member of the general assembly of 1560...

, and Warren Smith

Warren Smith (jazz musician)

Warren Smith is an American jazz percussionist.Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois, into a musical family; his father played saxophone and clarinet with Noble Sissle and Jimmy Noone, and his mother was a harpist and pianist. He studied clarinet under his father from age four...

. Abbs is currently a member of the collective groups Triptych Myth, Yuganaut, and Transmitting (with Napoleon Maddox and Jane LeCroy). He also leads the band Frequency Response and tours with his solo multimedia project Multifarious. He has collaborated with the painter M. P. Landis.

Abbs is also the founder of the arts coalition Jump Arts, which has presented performances and workshops throughout New York City from 1997 to 2002; since that time the organization has dedicated itself to artist services through fiscal sponsorship and media services.

He is also the general manager of ESP-Disk

ESP-Disk

ESP-Disk is a New York-based record label, founded in 1964 by lawyer Bernard Stollman.From the beginning, the label's goal has been to provide its recording artists with complete artistic freedom, unimpeded by any record company interference or commercial expectations—a philosophy summed-up by the...

.

External links

• Tom Abbs page from Jump Arts site
• Tom Abbs interview by John Sharpe, June 23, 2008
• [ Tom Abbs discography] from Allmusic