Joshua Abrams is a composer, bassist and improviser. His early formative musical experiences included performing in a chamber group conducted by Earle Brown, and busking on the streets of Philadelphia as an original member of The Roots.
Since the mid-1990s, Abrams has been a key figure in Chicago’s creative music communities and as an international touring musician across genres. Since 2010, Abrams has performed and recorded his compositions in the context of the Natural Information Society. NIS represents a convergence of musicians and artists who create sonic harbor, meditative space and kinetic momentum music.
Working the seams between minimalism, jazz and experimental practice, the group has become a reference for contemporary non-idiomatic creative music. The band has recorded seven albums for Eremite Records, including “Since Time Is Gravity” and two collaborations with Bitchin Bajas for Drag City Records. He has toured extensively in North America, Europe and Brazil.
Abrams has worked extensively with artists including Fred Anderson, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Ari Brown, Hamid Drake, Theaster Gates, Sam Prekop, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Mike Reed and Matana Roberts. He was a founding member of the bands Town and Country and Sticks and Stones. Abrams has scored 10 feature films, including “Life Itself,” the Oscar-nominated “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” and “The Trials of Muhammad Ali.”
He currently collaborates with Chad Taylor in the duo Mind Maintenance, serves as the musical director of the Harvest Time Experiment and is a member of Hamid Drake’s ensemble Turiya: Honoring Alice Coltrane. Abrams was a 2018 Grants for Artists recipient from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
