Chris Abrahams

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New Zealand pianist (born 1961)

title: "Chris Abrahams" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1961-births", "21st-century-new-zealand-pianists", "living-people", "apra-award-winners", "australian-jazz-pianists", "australian-session-musicians", "benders-members", "musicians-from-sydney", "people-from-oamaru", "the-necks-members", "the-whitlams-members"] description: "New Zealand pianist (born 1961)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Abrahams" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary New Zealand pianist (born 1961) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameChris Abrahams
imageChris Abrahams.jpg
captionAbrahams (right) performing with James Waples and Mike Majkowski
image_size250px
birth_nameChristopher Robert Lionel Abrahams
birth_date
birth_placeOamaru, New Zealand
originSydney, New South Wales, Australia
death_date
genre
occupationMusician
instrument
years_active1980–present
label
current_member_ofThe Necks
::

| name = Chris Abrahams | image = Chris Abrahams.jpg | alt = | caption = Abrahams (right) performing with James Waples and Mike Majkowski | image_size = 250px | birth_name = Christopher Robert Lionel Abrahams | alias = | birth_date = | birth_place = Oamaru, New Zealand | origin = Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | death_date = | death_place = | genre = | occupation = Musician | instrument = | years_active = 1980–present | label = | current_member_of = The Necks

Christopher Robert Lionel Abrahams (born 9 April 1961) is a New Zealand-born, Australian-based musician. He is a founding mainstay member of experimental, jazz trio the Necks (1987–present), collaborated with Melanie Oxley as a soul pop duo (1989–2003), and has issued ten solo albums.

Biography

Early years

Main article: Benders, Lloyd Swanton

Christopher Robert Lionel Abrahams was born on 9 April 1961 in Oamaru, New Zealand. Abrahams, on keyboards, formed jazz group Benders, in 1980 in Sydney with Dale Barlow on tenor saxophone, Louis Burdett on drums and Lloyd Swanton on bass guitar. By the time Benders disbanded in 1985, Abrahams had performed on all three of their albums, E (1983), False Laughter (1984) and Distance (1985). While still with Benders, late in 1983, he supplied piano for Laughing Clowns' second album, Law of Nature (1984).

The Necks, Melanie Oxley & Chris Abrahams

Main article: The Necks, Melanie Oxley

The Sparklers were a dance pop group formed in 1985 by Abrahams on keyboards, Bill Bilson on drums (ex-Sunnyboys), Gerard Corben on guitar (ex-Lime Spiders), Ernie Finckh (RenrocRab) on guitar and the Oxley siblings Melanie on lead vocals (ex-Sweet Nothings) and Peter on bass guitar (ex-Sunnyboys). The Sparklers issued their debut album, Persuasion, in 1988.

The Necks were formed as a jazz trio, in 1987, by Abrahams on piano, keyboards, organ and guitar with former bandmate, Swanton, on bass guitar and double bass, and Tony Buck on drums, percussion and guitar (ex-Great White Noise). As from March 2020 the trio have issued 16 studio albums. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described their sonation, "abstract, improvised, jazzy mood music."

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/lloyd-swanton_chris-abrahams.jpg" caption="Chris Abrahams (at right) and [[Lloyd Swanton]], on double bass, performing with [[the Necks]] (2015) in [[Aarhus]], Denmark"] ::

In 1989, while still with the Necks, Abrahams formed a soul pop duo, Melanie Oxley & Chris Abrahams, with former the Sparklers' bandmate, Oxley. For that EP they used Abrahams' current and former bandmates, Buck on drums, Swanton on acoustic bass guitar, Corben (ex-the Sparklers) on guitar as well as Mike Bukovsky on trumpet, Guy Dickerson on guitar, Stuart Eadie on floor toms and Jackie Orszaczky on bass guitar. While periodically collaborating with Abrahams, Oxley maintained her career as a school teacher.

The duo's first two albums, Welcome to Violet (1992) and Coal (1994), were released via Remote Records/MDS. It was created, narrated and produced by Abrahams with The Listening Rooms Sherre DeLys.

Melanie Oxley & Chris Abrahams' next work, Blood Oranges, appeared in early 2003 via Remote Records/Vitamin Records. *The Sydney Morning Herald*s John Shand found, "his lyrics are often bleaker than their past work, it is not a despairing bleakness, but one bolstered by stoicism, wit, hope and a love of beauty." Jeremy Green of dB Magazine observed, "[it is] peculiarly ineffectual. It paws lazily at classic Motown pop but is totally sedated by dinky production and emotional primness."

Solo work

Abrahams issued his debut solo album, Piano, in 1985 via Hot Records/Making Waves. It was recorded at Sydney Opera House's Recording Hall and mastered at Studios 301. Tony Mitchell of Cyclic Defrost described this album in 2017, "nine improvisations... it suggests a virtuoso pianist in the making." After leaving the Sparklers, in 1987, he issued his second studio album, Walk.

His fifth solo album, Thrown appeared in 2005 via Room40. Cyclic Defrosts Max Schaefer noticed, "Technically formidable and conceptually refined, [he] pays homage to the piano by drawing it into tightly articulated and highly personalized forms." At the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards his work was nominated for Best Original Music Score.

Play Scar (2010), his seventh album, was reviewed by Oliver Laing of Cyclic Defrost, who declared, "[it] is the glorious sound of well-established artist willing to push the boundaries of sound and technique into new realms." His next effort, Memory Night (2013), shows that "even at his most ominous is also quite listenable, creating jumbled, but still quite accessible soundscapes" according to 4ZZZ's Chris Cobroft.

Abrahams has worked as a session musician on albums by the Triffids (Born Sandy Devotional, 1986), Ed Kuepper (Rooms of the Magnificent, 1986; Honey Steel's Gold, 1991; This Is the Magic Mile, 2005), Skunkhour (Skunkhour, 1993), the Apartments (A Life Full of Farewells, 1995; Apart, 1997; In and Out of the Light, 2020), the Church (Magician Among the Spirits, 1996), the Whitlams (Eternal Nightcap, 1997; Torch the Moon, 2002), Silverchair (Neon Ballroom, 1999), Midnight Oil (The Real Thing, 2000) and Wendy Matthews (Beautiful View, 2001).Australian Rock Database entries:

  • Chris Abrahams:
  • The Laughing Clowns:
  • The Sparklers:
  • The Necks:
  • Melanie Oxley & Chris Abrahams:

Musical style and composing

Some of Abrahams' music is experimental in nature—The Necks are an improvisational trio, and Abraham's performance at the Room40 Tenth Anniversary in London was labelled "ambient", "free-jazz" and "industrial noise" by (UK) Financial Times reviewer, Mike Hobart. Chris Reid of RealTime magazine wrote of his Germ Studies collaboration with Clare Cooper, an organiser of the NOWnow Festival who played the Chinese zither on the album, that "it represents an extensive investigation into the endless range of sounds that can be created by combining the venerable DX7 synthesiser and the even more venerable Chinese zither, the guzheng [...] a deep exploration of musical language".

Discography

Main article: Benders#Discography, The Necks#Discography

Albums

::data[format=table] | Title | Album details | Piano | Walk | Welcome to Violet (with Melanie Oxley) | Coal (with Melanie Oxley) | Jerusalem Bay (with Melanie Oxley) | Glow | Blood Oranges (with Melanie Oxley) | Streaming | Artery (with Jon Rose, and Clayton Thomas) | Thrown | Oceanic Feeling Like (with Mike Cooper) | The Tender Hook: Motion Picture Soundtrack | Germ Studies (with Clare Cooper) | Play Scar | None of Them Would Remember It That Way (with Lucio Capece) | None of Them Would Remember It That Way (with Alessandro Bosetti) | Kopfüberwelle (with Sabine Vogel) | Memory Night | Gardenier (with Magda Mayas) | Luv / Kopfüberwelle (with Sabine Vogel) | Fluid to the Influence | Climb | Peggy (with Jon Rose) | Sink (with Arthur Rother, Andrea Ermke, Marcello Silvio Busato) | Next to Nothing (with Ignaz Schick) | Appearance | Praxis (with Mike Cooper) | Weft (with Robbie Avenaim and Jim Denley) | Words Fail (with Clayton Thomas & Miles Thomas) | Nightjar (with The Vampires) | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::

Extended plays

::data[format=table] | Title | EP details | Resisting Calm (with Melanie Oxley) | |---|---|---| | | | | ::

Awards and nominations

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). |- | 2005 || "Drive By" (with Lloyd Swanton and Anthony Buck) || Most Performed Jazz Work || |- | 2006 || "Chemist" (with Swanton and Buck) || Most Performed Jazz Work || |- | 2019 | "Body" (with Swanton and Buck) | Song of the Year | |-

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards are a set of annual ceremonies presented by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the music of Australia. They commenced in 1987.

! Ref. |- | 1993 | Welcome to Violet (with Melanie Oxley) | Best Independent Release | | |- | 2023 | Nightjar (with The Vampires) | Best Jazz Album | | |-

Helpmann Awards

The Helpmann Awards is an awards show, celebrating live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia since 2001. Note: 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

! Ref. |- |rowspan="2"| 2009 | FOOD COURT (with Back to Back Theatre and The Necks) | Best New Australian Work |

rowspan="2"
FOOD COURT (The Necks, Chris Abrahams, Tony Buck & Lloyd Swanton)
Best Original Score

| |-

References

;General

  • Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.

;Specific

References

  1. "'Living in a Jar' at APRA search engine". [[APRA AMCOS]] (Australasian Performing Right Association, Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society).
  2. Shand, John. (2002). "The new Grove dictionary of jazz". Grove's Dictionaries Inc..
  3. (13 February 2010). "South Island". [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] (ABC).
  4. McFarlane, [https://web.archive.org/web/20040803085003/http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=6 'Chris Abrahams'] entry. Archived from [http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=6 the original] on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  5. Jackson, Adrian. (28 October 1983). "Make Way for the Benders". [[The Age]].
  6. Couture, François. "The Necks | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  7. (1990). "Resisting Calm". Spiral Scratch Records.
  8. Dwyer, Michael. (4 July 2003). "Musical blood". [[The Age]].
  9. Australia Council. (2003). "Arts in Australia: Sherre DeLys". [[Australia Council for the Arts]].
  10. Shand, John. (15 April 2003). "Melanie Oxley and Chris Abrahams, The Basement".
  11. Green, Jeremy. "CD Reviews... Melanie Oxley & Chris Abrahams – ''Blood Oranges'' – Vitamin/Shock".
  12. Mitchell, Tony. (19 February 2017). "Chris Abrahams: ''The Farmer's Cinematheque'' and ''Climb''".
  13. Schaefer, Max. (September 2005). "Chris Abrahams – ''Thrown'' (Room40/Couchblip)". Cyclic Defrost Magazine.
  14. "''The Tender Hook'' (sound recording): motion picture soundtrack.". State Library of New South Wales.
  15. Zuk, Tim. "Australian Television: 2008 AFI Awards". Australian Television Information Archive.
  16. "Winners & Nominees". AACTA.
  17. Laing, Oliver. (27 July 2010). "Chris Abrahams – ''Play Scar'' (Room40)". Cyclic Defrost Magazine.
  18. Cobroft, Chris. (17 April 2013). "Chris Abrahams: ''Memory Night''". [[4ZZZ.
  19. Hobart, Mike. (8 November 2010). "Chris Abrahams, Café Oto, London". Financial Times (UK).
  20. Reid, Chris. "Earbash – Sound/Music CD Reviews – clare cooper & chris abrahams". [[RealTime Arts]].
  21. (1992). "Welcome to Violet". Remote Records.
  22. (1998). "Jerusalem Bay". Remote Records.
  23. (2001). "Glow". Vegetable Records; distributed by Vitamin Records.
  24. "Blood oranges". Remote Records.
  25. (2003). "Streaming". Vegetable Records.
  26. "Thrown". Chris Abrahams.
  27. (2008). "The Tender Hook: Motion Picture Soundtrack". SONY/ATV.
  28. Meggitt, Joshua. (6 April 2009). "Chris Abrahams and Clare Cooper – Germ Studies for Guzheng and DX7 (Splitrec)". Cyclic Defrost Magazine.
  29. (2010). "Play Scar". Chris Abrahams: Room40 [distributor].
  30. (2013). "Memory Night". Room40.
  31. "Fluid to the Influence". Room40.
  32. (2016). "Climb".
  33. "Chris Abrahams / Robbie Avenaim / Jim Denley: Weft".
  34. "APRA History". [[Australasian Performing Right Association]] (APRA).
  35. "2006 Winners – APRA Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).
  36. (5 February 2019). "APRA Reveals 2019 Song of the Year Shortlist".
  37. "ARIA Awards Best Independent Release". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).
  38. (21 September 2023). "Nominees Announced for 2023 ARIA Awards".
  39. "Events & Programs".
  40. "2009 Helpmann Awards Nominees & Winners". Australian Entertainment Industry Association (AEIA).

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

1961-births21st-century-new-zealand-pianistsliving-peopleapra-award-winnersaustralian-jazz-pianistsaustralian-session-musiciansbenders-membersmusicians-from-sydneypeople-from-oamaruthe-necks-membersthe-whitlams-members