John Abercrombie (musician)

John Abercrombie
Abercrombie at Bratislava Jazz Days, 2007
Background information
Birth name	John Laird Abercrombie
Born	(1944-12-16)December 16, 1944 Port Chester, New York, U.S.
Died	August 22, 2017(2017-08-22) (aged 72) Cortlandt Manor, New York, U.S.
Genres	Fusion, post-bop, avant-garde
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1969–2017
Labels	ECM
Associated acts	Gateway, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, George Mraz, Ralph Towner, Peter Erskine, Marc Johnson, Adam Nussbaum, Amita Jain

John Laird Abercrombie (December 16, 1944 – August 22, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist, composer and bandleader. His work explored jazz fusion, post bop, free jazz and avant-garde jazz. Abercrombie studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He recorded his debut album, Timeless with Manfred Eicher's ECM label, and recorded principally with this label since then. Abercrombie played with Billy Cobham, Ralph Towner, Jack DeJohnette, Charles Lloyd, Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker. He was known for his spare, understated and eclectic style and his work with organ trios.

John Abercrombie was born on December 16, 1944, in Port Chester, New York. He picked up the guitar at the age of 14. He began by playing along to Chuck Berry, but discovered jazz by listening to Barney Kessel. He attended Berklee College of Music from 1962 to 1966 and studied under famed guitar educator Jack Petersen. He often played with other students at Paul's Mall, a jazz club in Boston connected to the larger club Jazz Workshop. The gigs at Paul's Mall facilitated meetings with organist Johnny Hammond Smith and the Brecker Brothers (saxophone player Michael Brecker and his brother, trumpet player Randy Brecker). Smith asked Abercrombie to play with him, and they performed at Boston's Big M club as well as on tour.

Abercrombie graduated from Berklee in 1967 and briefly attended North Texas State University before moving to New York in 1969. He quickly became one of the "most in-demand session players," recording with Gil Evans in 1974, Gato Barbieri in 1971, and Barry Miles in 1972 among others. In 1969, he joined Dreams, one of the first jazz-rock bands, which rose to prominence in the late 60s and early 70s and featured the Brecker Brothers and drummer Billy Cobham. He also recorded on several of Cobham's albums, Crosswinds, Total Eclipse and Shabazz. Abercrombie's following began to grow at this point, largely due to Dreams's growing success. They shared billing with such rock acts as the Doobie Brothers, and Abercrombie found his career taking a direction he had not expected. "One night we appeared at the Spectrum in Philadelphia and I thought, 'what am I doing here?'. It just didn't compute."