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ABE

MAMET

       |  MUSIC  |  SHOWS  |  PROJECTS  |  BIO  |        

"Masterful use of space and pacing"

- Mike West/The Washington Post

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Lauded as D.C.’s “major jazz French horn

player” by the Washington Post, and named

one of 2023's "artists to watch" by DCist,

Abe Mamet is a composer and instrumentalist

committed to using his music to ground

himself, his fellow musicians, and his

audiences more deeply in the spaces they

occupy daily. That commitment involves

exploring the use of the French horn in

groove-oriented improvised music (informed

by the traditions of jazz/creative music/Black

American Music), and expanding the technical

and theoretical limitations of that instrument.

In March 2023, Abe took part in 577 Records' "Sounds of Freedom" Residency in Canale Monterano, Italy, under the mentorship of Leo Genovese, Daniel Carter, Patricia Nicholson-Parker, William Parker, and Rachel Musson. In 2024, Abe received the Prince George’s County Arts and Humanities Council’s Community Grant Award, which will support a new major work for septet.

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Abe Mamet was born in Denver, Colorado on September 2, 1994. At the age of 8, he began playing the French horn, which continues to be his main instrument today.

Whereas many French horn players only find jazz and creative music after restlessness with the world of classical and chamber music, Mamet has been immersed in this world almost since his beginnings on the horn. Encouraged by his grandfather, a jazz musician active in mid-century Philadelphia, Mamet pursued jazz and improvisation shortly after picking up the horn in elementary school. Bolstered by the untold blessing that is a robust and well-funded public school arts education, Abe's connection to jazz deepened. Particularly under the direction of Keith Oxman at Denver's historic East High School (fellow alums include Bill Frisell, Philip Bailey, and the late Ron Miles), Abe found himself entering airspace occupied by only a few before him - as a French horn player with jazz as his main, if not only, focus.

While a student at Colorado College, Abe received a student-faculty collaborative research grant from the Mellon Foundation to work with Professor Ryan Bañagale to study the history of the horn in jazz, and to transcribe work from its most important forebears, including Julius Watkins, David Amram, and Willie Ruff.  Through that project, Abe was introduced to the living core of musicians associated with the French horn in jazz, and became connected with David Amram, Morris Kliphuis, Tom Varner, Vincent Chancey, and John Clark. After graduating from Colorado College in 2017 with a degree in Political Science and History, Abe relocated to the East Coast. In 2018, he began formal lessons with John Clark, placing him squarely in the lineage of horn players influenced directly by the work of Julius Watkins.

Abe is a first-call horn for hire in large- and small-format creative music ensembles in DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York CIty. He has collaborated with countless artists, including William Parker, Frank Lacy, the AFree Symphony, Il Volo, Sarah Brightman, and Robert Lee "BJ" Simmons. In April 2021, Abe won the Northwest Horn Symposium’s competition for best jazz hornist. In November 2021, he released his debut album as a bandleader through LMB Records, entitled "The Abe Mamet Trio," available exclusively on Bandcamp.


In March 2023, Abe took part in 577 Records’ “Sounds of Freedom” Residency in Canale Monterano, Italy.


Forthcoming works include: “Spa Day,” an album for solo French horn out July 2024 via Baltimore’s Shiny Boy Press; “levitate the heavy part,” a major new work for septet out fall 2024 via DC’s LMB Records; Also Chosen’s debut, recorded May 2024 at D.C.’s historic Takoma Station; and Cutting Ceremony’s debut, out fall/winter 2024.

 

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