Rez Abbasi

Award-winning guitarist and composer Rez Abbasi possesses a rare talent for forging fresh sonic palettes within frameworks drawn from longstanding traditions. Raised in Southern California after his birth in Kurachi, Pakistan at age four, he absorbed an extensive array of musical influences. Abbasi navigates with equal ease across rock, fusion, hard bop, post-bop, and standards, alongside classical and sacred forms originating from the Indian sub-continent. Critics praised his 1999 debut Modern Memory as the statement of a forward-thinking stylist and resourceful composer. Across more than a dozen leader dates he has directed trios, quartets, and quintets, consistently seeking fresh ensembles to realize his artistic aims. Snake Charmer, released in 2005, generated attention through Abbasi’s fluid integration of jazz and Indian classical elements, with organ, drums, and guitar supporting Indian vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia in a unified texture rooted in modern jazz while probing the forefront of Eastern classical practice. The widely acclaimed 2009 album Things to Come assembled an all-star lineup including Ahluwalia, Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, bassist Johannes Weidenmueller, and drummer Dan Weiss; Downbeat ranked it among the finest recordings of the century’s opening decade. In 2019 Abbasi delivered Throw of Dice, his debut original film score for the identically titled silent feature directed by German filmmaker Frank Osten and filmed in striking Rajasthan settings.

Abbasi entered the world in Kurachi in 1975; his family relocated to the United States when he turned four. English became his primary language. He studied piano during childhood and took up guitar in high school after a concert by Joe Pass and Ella Fitzgerald, attended with his parents, sparked his interest in jazz. Abbasi enrolled at the University of Southern California, then moved to New York in 1987 to study at the Manhattan School of Music, where encounters with other Indian and Pakistani musicians deepened his engagement with the region’s sacred and classical traditions. He traveled to India to train under master percussionist Ustad Alla Rakha. Early guitar inspirations included Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, and Bill Frisell, though Abbasi’s voice remains distinctly his own. While working as a sideman and forming his own New York band, he issued a self-titled, self-released cassette in 1993. Two years later Third Ear appeared on Cathexis; recorded across two separate sessions, the rotating cast featured pianists Kenny Werner and Marc Copland, bassists Scott Colley and Marc Johnson, drummers Peter Erskine and Ben Perowsky, and saxophonists Billy Drews and Bob Mintzer. Jazz outlets commended the album for Abbasi’s technical command and melodic creativity. Modern Memory, issued in 1998, earned praise for its six original post-bop pieces framed by inventive interpretations of compositions by Hermeto Pascoal and Thelonious Monk.

Out of Body, recorded in 2002 for String Body, presented a world-fusion jazz quintet with bassist Bob Herbert, drummer Bruce Hall, saxophonist Tony Malaby, and trumpeter Ron Horton. By 2005 Abbasi had assembled a new quintet comprising drummer/percussionist Weiss, himself on guitars and sitar, Gary Versace on organ, David Liebman on soprano saxophone, and Ahluwalia on vocals and tambura; the group’s seamless blending of raga, borgeet, and thumri with avant post-bop electrified the jazz world. Following New York performances, Abbasi returned to the studio for the following year’s Bazaar on Zoho, which expanded to ten musicians including Mahanthappa, Ahluwalia, Gautam Siram, and Weiss and reached the lower half of the U.S. jazz charts. He toured his various ensembles throughout the United States and Europe at major festivals. In 2008 Abbasi contributed to Bob Belden’s Miles from India, a project celebrating Miles Davis’s On the Corner that united saxophonist Javon Jackson, flutist N. Ramani, trumpeter Hagans, former Davis sidemen Adam Holzman on keys, Darryl Jones on bass, Ndugu Chancler and Vincent Wilburn, Jr. on drums, and kanjira/ghatam player V. Selvaganesh; reviewers highlighted Abbasi’s inventive handling of Davis’s raw textures alongside Indian raga edges.

Abbasi resumed leadership duties in 2009 with Sunnyside’s Things to Come, again featuring Mahanthappa, Weiss, Iyer, and Ahluwalia. After extensive touring and appearances on Mahanthappa’s Kinsmen and Apti with the Indo Pak Coalition, he recorded two Enja albums: 2011’s Suno Suno by Rez Abbasi’s Invocation and 2012’s Continuous Beat, a trio project with drummer Satoshi Takeishi and bassist John Herbert. Beyond his own projects, Abbasi has served as sideman for Ruth Brown, Barre Phillips, Tim Berne, Billy Hart, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Dave Douglas, Mike Clark, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Marilyn Crispell, and Greg Osby on international tours and recordings. He reemerged as a leader in 2016 with Cuneiform’s Behind the Vibration, introducing the avant-jazz fusion quartet Junction that includes drummer Kenny Grohowski, keyboardist/organist Ben Stivers, and saxophonist Mark Shin.

In 2017 Abbasi entered a multi-album agreement with Whirlwind Recordings. His first release for the label, Unfiltered Universe, reunited him with Mahanthappa, Iyer, Weidenmueller, and Weiss while adding classical cellist Elizabeth Mikhael; the date completed a trilogy begun by Suno Suno and continued by Things to Come, shifting focus to the rhythmically vibrant South Asian elements of Carnatic instrumental music across seven originals. He also recorded the vinyl-only double-length Agrima in 2017 with a trio edition of Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition and played guitar in bassist Michael Janisch’s octet on the widely praised 2019 Whirlwind release Worlds Collide. That October Enja/Yellowbird issued Oasis, a collaboration with French classical harpist Isabelle Olivier, tabla player Prabhu Edouard, and drummer David Paycha; aside from the Richard Rodgers standard “My Favorite Things,” all compositions originated with the co-leaders and explored swinging post-bop alongside vanguard improvisation.

During those sessions Abbasi prepared a new ensemble to document his first film score. Commissioned in 2017 by New York Guitar Festival curator David Spelman, A Throw of the Dice accompanied German director Frank Osten’s historic silent film, shot in Rajasthan and drawn from a Mahābhārata episode, and was conceived for live performance during screenings. Abbasi’s Silent Ensemble comprised the guitarist with saxophonist/flautist Pawan Benjamin, bassist/cellist Jennifer Vincent, Carnatic percussionist Rohan Krishnamurthy, and drummer Jake Goldbas. Whirlwind released the recording in November 2019, after which the group performed in Paris, Washington, D.C., and New York City.