Jazz Articles about Tom Abbs

Tom Abbs & Frequency Response: Hawthorne

by Karl Ackermann
September 9, 2018

Bassist and multi-instrumentalist Tom Abbs began his Frequency Response series in 2003 with Conscription (CIMP Records). The group--then a quartet--included tenor saxophonist Brian Settles and drummer Chad Taylor. Alto saxophonist Jason Candler, violinists Jean Cook and Jenna Barvitski are later additions to Frequency Response. On their long-awaited fourth album Hawthorne, Abbs again stands in as a one-man orchestra, playing bass, cello, piano, and tuba. Abbs, primarily known as a free improvisational bassist is also an accomplished filmmaker, having ...

Tom Abbs & Frequency Response: Hawthorne

by Don Phipps
August 23, 2018

On his album Hawthorne, Brooklyn-based Tom Abbs showcases his mastery of several instruments and writing styles. Combining free, hard bop, world, and blues styles, Abbs's compositions juxtapose explosive exposés of new music with idioms that hearken back to ancient times. Abbs is joined by Jean Cook and Jenna Barvitski on violin, Brian Settles on tenor, Chad Taylor on drums, and Jason Candler on bass clarinet and alto sax. Abbs handles the chores on bass, tuba, piano, and cello. ...

Andrew Lamb: Rhapsody in Black

by AAJ Italy Staff
September 3, 2012

L'etichetta lituana No Business Records continua ad arricchire un catalogo tra i più interessanti in circolazione con una perla dietro l'altra. E questo Rhapsody in Black non fa eccezione. Nella composizione del quartetto che ha dato alle stampe lo splendido CD spicca la presenza delle due batterie di Michael Wimberly e di Guillermo E. Brown, preludio apparentemente inevitabile a fuochi d'artificio ritmici e propulsioni forsennate. Niente di più lontano dalla verità perché in questa ambiziosa opera di Andrew Lamb i ...

Tom Abbs & Frequency Response: Lost & Found

by Jerry D'Souza
August 18, 2009

Tom Abbs is a multi-instrumentalist who, besides violin and didgeridoo, plays bass, tuba and cello on this CD. He has enlivened the free jazz scene in New York, not only through his collaborations with Cooper-Moore and Steve Swell among others, but with his music as well. He thinks with a vivid imagination and as such injects his compositions with melody, free falling notes, jazz harmony and a picturesque development. The last may well spring from his role as film-maker.

Tom Abbs and Frequency Response: Lost + Found

by Lyn Horton
July 23, 2009

Rarely does a recording's clarity of purpose come through in one listening, but bassist Tom Abbs and Frequency Response's Lost + Found fits the bill. The significance of this record originates in the brevity of each of bassist Abbs' eighteen pieces--lasting, on average, only slightly over three minutes, with the longest being six and the shortest about two.

The key to plugging into this album is recognizing that the major concern is the expression of one musical concept after another. ...

Tom Abbs: Lost & Found

by Raul d'Gama Rose
July 16, 2009

It is possible to respond to Tom Abbs & Frequency Response's Lost & Found with eyes wide shut, ears completely unlocked and a body ready to leap up and dance to some of its eighteen randomly arranged musical fragments. There is a cerebral angle here, most likely deliberate on the part of the artist. It has to do with the arrangement of the fragments--the songs, that is. Some are inspired by visual images and intended to sound like aural depictions ...

Tom Abbs & Frequency Response: Lost + Found

by Glenn Astarita
June 28, 2009

Frequency Response's third outing is a study in diversity via a stylistic group sound that touches upon many genres. Cellist/tubaist Tom Abbs is the director of operations throughout a program that integrates chamber jazz, free jazz, and noise-shaping activities amid many other shades of Western song forms.

The group abides by a structured approach to the core compositional underpinnings, but partake in mini, cosmic meltdowns and bustling rhythmic metrics. It's a turbulent journey at times, where the majority ...