Abbey Rader

Abbey Rader
File:Abbey Rader - PAX Concert 10-31-2012.jpg
Background information
Born	(1943-10-14)October 14, 1943 New Jersey, USA
Genres	Avant-garde jazz, free Jazz, improvised, spiritual
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, bandleader, poet
Instruments	Drums and percussion
Years active	1961–Present
Website	abbeyrader.com

Abbey Rader (October 14, 1943 – Present) is an American jazz and improvised/creative music drummer, percussionist, and composer. Throughout his childhood and his early career, he worked in the New York City (NYC) jazz scene where the contemporary loft jazz, bebop, and free jazz movements formed his musical expressions. He later played and taught across Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, and then returned to North America to create improvised music that combines his free jazz, martial arts, and Buddhist spiritual roots. He recorded over 25 albums as a leader/composer thus far in his career, and worked with David Liebman, John Handy, Billy Bang, Dr. L. Subramaniam, and Mal Waldron in a professional career spanning over four decades.

Rader's most recent album, "The Message", was released in August 2014 and is a recording of his live January 2014 radio performance on Evenin' Jazz with the Real Tracy Fields at WLRN Miami. Prior to this, his quartet featuring John McMinn, Noah Brandmark and Kyle Motl released their second recording, "Reach for the Skies" a runner-up for Album of Year in 2013. Their first effort, Live at PAX, was named one of the "Best of 2012". In 1999, Abbey Rader's "Ballistics of Yin and Yang", was awarded as one of the year's best jazz CDs - "providing a glimmer of hope that the art form will live on into the next millennium".

Biography

Abbey Rader was born in New Brunswick, NJ but was raised in the Bronx, NY where he moved by the time 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 learning went beyond simply musicality, but increasingly, spirituality as well. Rader met drummer Clarence "Scoby" Strohman while playing opposite the Marin Rivers trio. Scoby 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."

Rader recalls that hearing John Coltrane's quartet with Elvin Jones at the Half Note Club was a pivotal moment that changed his musical expression to embracing improvisation and searching for the union between mind, spirit, and body. Additionally, the free jazz style in full motion at the time influenced Rader's musical style. He started playing in the mid-70s loft jazz movement, which led him to creating his first master as a band leader, a recording entitled "The Thing". He decided that to continue to play his freer 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" while in Paris under Atmosphere Records.

From France, he moved to Germany - initially playing with Bob Lenox in Lenox's original style of rock- and funk-oriented 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. John 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.

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. 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.

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.

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

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.

Spiritual Influence

In 1975, Rader met the venerable Reverend Sheng-yen, who would become his lifetime teacher and recurring influence in all aspects of his life. Through his Buddhist studies under Sheng-yen, Rader received Dharma name Guo Hsing, meaning "fruit of good fortune". Rader's practice involved many week-long retreats both at the Temple of Enlightenment in Queens, New York and as one of 130 on November 19, 2006 at Dharma Drum Retreat Center, both founded by Sheng-yen. His studies included Ch'an meditation that is focused on clearing the mind and embracing impermanence.

Abbey Rader incorporated these practices in his style of improvised music. As explained by Rader, in an Avant Music News interview, "in music, if you have the technique well built...and want to improvise freely, you must empty your mind to...interplay spontaneously with the other musicians and allow the music to come through you. This to me is the correlation between the freer music and the Buddhist empty mind practice."

Martial Arts Influence

In NYC's East Village in 1964, Rader started studying Nisei Goju Ryu an Okinawan form of Karate at the University of the Streets. His teachers were grandmaster Frank Ruiz and John Giordano. Lessons included vow making, bowing and traditional meditation practices to focus the mind. By the early 1970s, Rader achieved a black-belt level, and started studying under Rick "The Fireman" Joslin (a frequent performer at "The World of Martial Arts" show put on by Aaron Banks). His training then took on a "street-style" of self-defense without the use of traditional uniforms or colored belt achievements.

In the early 2000s, Rader started practicing Qigong and Taiji under the tutelage of Wei Zhong Foo and Dororthy Chong. He then continued his studies at the International Buddhist Progress Society Temple under Robert Cheng. Rader later took over teaching at this Temple after Cheng departed.

Rader's next teacher was Chen Ji Fan and after years under his instruction and at his encouragement, Rader began teaching Yang-style T'ai chi ch'uan, standing (Zhan Zhuang) meditation, and sitting meditation, starting his Fearless Mind School. Rader states that he is inspired by these practices to enter a state of "empty mind", which allow him to embrace spontaneity in life and music.

Music Teaching

Rader taught the first jazz drum-set studies course at several universities in Germany during the 1980s. His teaching focused on rudiments to enable students to develop the facility to independently move their hands and feet. Each class had at least two drum sets where Rader and the students would play together, trading fours and eights, learning about song form and melodic playing. Rader exposed students to other forms of music (like blues and his experience with jazz and lounge bands), often introducing them to saxophone or trumpet players he's worked with, to expand their musical knowledge and fidelity.

Universities included:

• Detmold Hochschule
• Einbeck Musikhochschule
• TU Göttingen
• TU Braunschweig

Collaborations

Below is a partial list of the musicians Abbey Rader recorded and performed with (presented in alphabetical order):

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	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
Joe Zeytoonian

Discography

A chronological listing of released records and CDs featuring Abbey Rader:

2000 - Present

• First Gathering
  • Abbey Rader West Coast Quartet
  • ABRAY Productions, 2015
• The Message
  • John McMinn, Noah Brandmark, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 2014
• Reach for the Skies
  • John McMinn, Noah Brandmark, Kyle Motl, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 2013
• Live at PAX
  • John McMinn, Noah Brandmark, Kyle Motl, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 2012
• Suite Rhythm
  • John McMinn, Harold Staples, Joe Zeytoonian, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 2004
• Cosmos
  • David Liebman, Abbey Rader
  • Cadence Jazz Records, 2003
• One for Jazz
  • Billy Bang, Ed Schuller, Frank Lowe, Abbey Rader
  • No More Records, 2001
• Open Friends
  • Noah Brandmark, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 2001
• Space Between Worlds
  • Kenny Millions, Joe Zeytoonian, Abbey Rader
  • Hum Ha Records, 2001
• Inner Voices Live
  • David Liebman, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 2000
• Soundscapes
  • Peter Ponzol, Marilynn Seits, Abbey Rader
  • CMR Jazz Records, 2000

1990 - 1999

• Echoes
  • Billy Bang, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 1999
• The Ballistics of Yin and Yang
  • Davey Williams, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 1999
• The Spirit Inside Us
  • Gunter Schwarz, Billy Bang, Ed Schuller, Zam Johnson, Abbey Rader
  • Timbre, 1998
• Inner Voices
  • David Liebman, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 1997
• Mystic Journey
  • Philip Gelb, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 1997
• The Ferryman’s Release
  • Richard Brookens, Michael Moses, Abbey Rader
  • Rivers of Time Productions, 1997
• Southern Arrival
  • Joe Zeytoonian, Myriam Eli, Kenny Millions, Abbey Rader
  • Third Stream Music, 1995
• Suburban Utopic
  • Keshavan Maslak, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 1995
• Homecoming
  • David Liebman, Mack Goldsbury, Roy Cummings, Abbey Rader
  • Cadence Jazz Records, 1990

1978 - 1989

• Brush Off
  • Magic Cube Europe, 1987
• Live at the Holstebro Jazz Festival
  • "Abbey Rader’s Right Time"
  • ABRAY Productions, 1983
• The Last Retreat
  • Ken Simon, Abbey Rader
  • ABRAY Productions, 1983
• Songs of Street and Spirit
  • Marc Levin, Abbey Rader
  • Sweet Dragon Records, 1982
• European Childbirth
  • Sweet Dragon Records, 1981
• Call on Blue
  • Omnibus, 1979
• The Thing
  • IRI, 1978
• Prism
  • Peter Ponzol, Joe Gallivan, Abbey Rader
  • Vinyl Records, 1978

Further reading

• • Abbey Rader on playing improvised music:
• Radio Station Appearances and Interviews
  • WPRK/FM, Orlando - November 23, 1997
  • WLRN Radio, Miami - October, 1997
  • KDSU/FM, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota - September, 1997
  • WUSB/FM, SUNY Stonybrook, New York - September 11, 1997