Joshua Abrams

Joshua Abrams, Kongsberg Jazzfestival 2019. Image: Tore Sætre

Joshua Mikah "Josh" Abrams (* 1973 in Boston ) is an American jazz and improvisation musician ( double bass , gimbri ), composer and band leader .

Life

Abrams' career began in Philadelphia in the late 1980s , where he was a member of Square Roots , which was then still active as a street band and with whom he toured Europe in 1992. He also played in an improvisational ensemble directed by Earle Brown .

Abrams has been working in the Chicago jazz scene since the late 1990s. a. with David Boykin , Ernest Dawkins , Fred Lonberg-Holm , the Exploding Star Orchestra , Hamid Drake , Jeff Albert and Matana Roberts ; He was also a member of Mike Reed's Loose Assembly ( The Speed of Change , 2008) and Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble, as well as rock bands such as Yanqui UXO. He formed Sticks & Stones with Roberts and Chad Taylor . He also played with Adam Rudolph's band Moving Pictures .

Since 2010 several recordings have been made by Abrams' Natural Information Society , with which he also toured Europe. In this project he combines traditional instruments with electronic elements in changing band line- ups to create psychedelic “environments”.

In the field of jazz, according to Tom Lord , he was involved in 54 recording sessions between 1997 and 2018, including a. with Fred Anderson , Josh Berman and Jason Stein . 2013 the album Unknown Known was released on RogueArt ; In 2018 he presented solo recordings on the acoustic bass on the album Excavations . In the recordings under his own name he usually combines jazz and improvisation, electro-acoustic composition, beats, minimalist music and field recordings . He has also worked as a film composer.

Discographic notes

Busride Interview (Lucky Kitchen, 2002)
Cipher ( Delmark Records , 2003, with Axel Dörner , Guillermo Gregorio , Jeff Parker )
After (Lucky Kitchen, 2004)
Natural Information (Eremite Records, 2010, with Frank Rosaly , Jason Adasiewicz )
Represencing (Eremite Records, 2012)
Natural Information Society - Simultonality (Eremite Records, 2017)
Joshua Abrams / John Herndon / Kjetil Møster / Jeff Parker : Ran Do ( Clean Feed Records , 2018)
Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society: Mandatory Reality (2019, with Ben LaMar Gay , Nick Mazzarella , Jason Stein , Lisa Alvarado, Ben Boye, Mikel Avery, Hamid Drake )

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d entry Foundation for Contemporary Arts
↑ Event information at Constellation Chicago (2016)
^ Natural Information Society , accessed July 4, 2017.
↑ Tom Lord Jazz Discography

personal data
SURNAME	Abrams, Joshua
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Abrams, Joshua Mikah (full name); Abrams, Josh
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH	1973
PLACE OF BIRTH	Boston

[FCA-1] try Foundation for Contemporary Arts

[2] Event information at Constellation Chicago (2016)

[3] Natural Information Society , accessed July 4, 2017.

[4] Tom Lord Jazz Discography