Bassist/Composer Tom Abbs Interviewed at AAJ
Bassist, composer and film-maker Tom Abbs has enlivened not only the ensembles in which he has played, but also the New York City free jazz scene with his brand of musical activism, through the Jump Arts Foundation. An accomplished instrumentalist on tuba as well as bass, he has collaborated with downtown stalwarts Daniel Carter, Steve Swell, Cooper-Moore, Jemeel Moondoc, Assif Tsahar, Andrew Lamb and Warren Smith among many others.
He boasts a distinctive compositional conception manifest through his adventurous Frequency Response grouping, increasingly allied to a personal visual lexicon. As if this wasn't enough, Abbs has become general manager of a resurgent ESP Disk, overseeing reissues of the classic catalogue alongside an array of mouthwatering new releases. The unification of these different streams has reached an apogee in the co-operative trio Yuganaut, whose first disc is out on ESP.
Check out John Sharpe's in-depth interview, Tom Abbs: Combining Music and Film at AAJ today!
