Abbey Rader

Abbey Rader was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and raised in the Bronx where he moved when he was six months old. His introduction to drumming began early, as his father was a band leader and drummer. Rader started playing traditional jazz gigs in the early 1960s, typically piano/bass/drum or saxophone/organ/drum trios, which exposed him to a variety of musicians that subtly influenced his style.

His education went beyond music into spirituality. Rader met drummer Clarence "Scoby" Strohman while playing opposite the Marin Rivers trio. Strohman introduced Rader to books like Light on the Path by Mabel Collins and Paramahansa Yogananda's The Autobiography of a Yogi, which helped begin Rader's spiritual journey. Rader recalls an anecdote that touched his confidence as well. "My music reading skills were not very good, but Scoby had lots of faith in me. He stood behind me on the bandstand one night as I started to play acts with lots of music to read. Scoby said, "That's not a problem for you. That's nothing for you." I played remarkably well that night. I said to Scoby, "Did you see those difficult charts I read?", and he said he couldn't read a note. So I learned something else about the spiritual power and the power of the mind."[15]

Rader recalls that hearing John Coltrane's quartet with Elvin Jones at the Half Note Club was a moment that changed his musical expression to improvisation and searching for the union between mind, spirit, and body.[16]

The free jazz in style at the time influenced Rader. He started playing in the mid-70s loft jazz movement, which led him to create his first album as a band leader, a recording entitled The Thing. He decided that to continue to play his free style of music, moving to Europe would provide opportunities not available in the U.S. With nothing but a drum set and $500, he traveled to London and later published The Thing for Atmosphere Records while in Paris.[17]

From France, he moved to Germany, initially playing with Bob Lenox in Lenox's rock and funk pieces. His desire to continue playing free jazz brought Rader to drumming with George Bishop in improvised duet performances. In the 1980s, he worked with alto saxophonist, John Handy; violinist, L. Subramaniam; and bassist, Sigi Busch. Handy encouraged Rader to play powerfully, asking him to play drum solos behind his saxophone as they toured Europe. Later, Rader spent five years in the Gunter Hampel Big Band that included Jeanne Lee and Marion Brown. Rader's next lesson came from playing with Mal Waldron and Marc Levin, a NYC friend, on trumpet. As Rader described, Mal often helped Rader put life's tribulations in perspective and encouraged him to play freely, to transform the energy he might be feeling by channeling it into his drumming.[16]

During this time, Rader started his Abbey Rader's Right Time band. He recorded several times with this band and established record label Abray Productions.[18][19] He also became a touring clinician for Sonor and Tosco (later Sabian, see: UFIP) cymbals, and taught at multiple universities in Germany. During his teaching, he frequently featured improvisational artists he worked with to teach how to improvise on music tracks a band may play.[20]

Rader met his wife and raised two sons in Germany, and then moved to South Florida in 1989. In the 1990s and 2000s he recorded with David Liebman, putting out four CDs together. He then spent nearly five years with violinist Billy Bang in the Jazz Doctors. In this group, Rader replaced recently deceased Dennis Charles; other band members included Frank Lowe on saxophone and bass player Ed Schuller. While doing a sound check for the Vision Festival in memory of Dennis Charles, Rader had the fortune of meeting Billy Higgins. Higgins was getting the stage ready for a drum choir and encouraged Rader to get his drum set, after which they began an impromptu drum performance. Later, Rader recorded "One for Jazz" with Bang and Lowe in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. He spent much of his time touring the East Coast of the U.S, including Charleston, South Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, and the Zeitgeist Art Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.[21]

Most recently, Rader has been performing with John McMinn, Noah Brandmark, Kyle Motl, and Kidd Jordan.[22][23]

These experiences, and his current performances, continue to influence Abbey Rader's style of music. He draws on his traditional jazz roots to create a "circular feeling...[with] a lot of polyrythmn between cymbals, bass drum, and snare drum", which he employs to play with other musicians to free himself from the original way of drumming and ultimately himself.[15][24]

Rader has recorded and performed with Laurindo Almeida, Billy Bang, George Bishop, Marion Brown, Cameron Brown, Sigi Busch, Marty Cook, Roy Cumming, Herman Foster, Joe Gallivan, Philip Gelb, Rainer Glas, Mack Goldsbury, Gunter Hampel, John Handy, Luc Houtkamp, Leonard Jones, Kidd Jordan, Peter Kuhn, Jeanne Lee, Bob Lenox, Marc Levin, David Liebman, Frank Lowe, Keshavan Maslak, Ron McClure, Kim Mikkelson, Peck Morrison, Peter Ponzol, Ed Schuller, Ken Simon, Dr. L. Subramaniam, Mal Waldron, David Wertman, Joerg Widmoser, Leszek Zadlo, and Joe Zeytoonian.[25]

• The Thing (IRI/Atmosphere, 1979)
• European Childbirth (Sweet Dragon, 1981)
• Songs of Street and Spirit with Marc Levin (Sweet Dragon, 1982)
• Live at the Holstebro Jazzfestival Holstebro, Denmark (Abray, 1983)
• The Last Retreat with Ken Simon (Abray, 1983)
• Brush Off (Magic Cube, 1987)
• Southern Arrival with Harmonic Motion (Third Stream Music, 1995)
• Suburban Utopic with Keshavan Maslak, (Abray, 1995)
• Mystic Journey with Philip Gelb (Abray, 1997)
• Inner Voices with Dave Liebman (Abray, 1997)
• The Spirit Inside Us with Rader Schwarz Group (Timbre, 1998)
• Echoes with Billy Bang (Abray, 1999)
• The Ballistics of Yin and Yang with Davey Williams (Abray, 1999)
• Inner Voices Live with Dave Liebman (Abray, 2000)
• Open Friends with Noah Brandmark (Abray, 2001)
• Space Between Worlds with Florida Free World Ensemble (Hum Ha, 2002)
• Cosmos with Dave Liebman (Cadence, 2003)
• Suite Rhythm (Abray, 2004)
• Live at PAX (Abray, 2011)
• Reach for the Skies (Abray, 2013)
• The Message (Abray, 2014)
• First Gathering (Abray, 2015)
• Reunion with Kidd Jordan (Abray, 2016)
• Phenobarbital Sessions with John McMinn (Abray, 2017)
• Second Gathering (Abray, 2018)

• Bob Lenox, Call On Blue (Omnibus, 1979)
• Bob Lenox, Analog Telcom (Stockfisch, 1982)
• Bob Lenox, Digital (Stockfisch, 1982)
• Frank Lowe & Billy Bang, One for Jazz (No More, 2001)

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