Joshua Abrams (musician)


Joshua Abrams is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist.

Career

While living in Philadelphia in the late 1980s, Abrams was a member of Square Roots, a street music group that developed into The Roots. He moved to Chicago and played as a bassist with Tortoise, Town and Country, Hamid Drake, and Matana Roberts. Abrams was the house bass player at Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge and for several years he played a weekly club date with Tortoise's John Herndon and Jeff Parker. He was a member of Mike Reed's Loose Assembly and Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble. In 2003, he played bass on Godspeed You! Black Emperor's album Yanqui U.X.O.. He has worked as a studio musician on recordings made in Chicago, such as Jandek's Chicago Wednesday; Bonnie "Prince" Billy's Beware and albums from Chicago musicians such as Joan of Arc, David Grubbs, and Sam Prekop.
In the early 00's, Delmark released his acoustic quartet album Cipher and Lucky Kitchen released his solo soundscape albums. He recorded albums under the name "Reminder" for Prefuse 73's Eastern Developments label and Easel. In 2010, Abrams started the band Natural Information Society, with albums released by Eremite Records. In 2018 he received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award.
As a film composer, Abrams has written music for director Steve James and for Life Itself, The Interrupters, The Trials of Muhammad Ali, , and the documentary series America to Me. He composed and performed in the play At Twilight by Simon Starling, with Theaster Gates at Documenta 13, and in exhibitions by Lisa Alvarado.

Discography

As leader

With Town & Country
With Joan of Arc
With Nicole Mitchell
With Mike Reed
With Dave Rempis
With others