MICHAEL ABENE

When New York was being set ablaze by a hungry group of upstart musicians with names like Brecker, Gadd, Tee and Lee, there was an unassuming yet voracious musician named Michael Abene among them writing voluminous stacks of top shelf charts. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he was the product of a large, warm and passionately musical Italian family. A prodigy as well as an academic wiz, Abene graduated from high school two years early to grace the music world with the expansive range of his artistic gifts. Learning by trial and error while working with the finest musicians “ known and unsung “ Michael is primarily self-taught as a pianist and as a composer/arranger. From big band writer to commercial jingle composer, from the Village Vanguard to Carnegie Hall, from Liza Minnelli to B.B. King, from the GRP All-Star Big Band of New York to the WDR Radio Big read more...