Abe Rábade began his musical career at the age of 4 in his home town. He moved to USA at age 17 to complete his education at Berklee College (Boston, MA) where he obtained a Degree Cum Laude in Jazz Composition and Piano Performance. He lives in Santiago de Compostela since 2000.

Pianist, composer and teacher, he leads his acoustic trio since 1996. Babel de Sons (2001) is his first album, a live recording that contains a performance awarded with the 2nd prize of the International Contest of Jazz Groups of Getxo (Euskadi). In the same year he wins the Prize Tete Montoliú (Revelation Pianist in Spain). Simetrías (2002), his second record, was presented at the Plaza de La Habana Jazz Festival (Cuba).

Artist for Karonte Records since 2004, he released GHU! Project vol.1 (2004), a quintet album, and his most recent trio production Playing on Light -7 sounding photos- , a programatic work where seven black and white pictures are musicated (it contains images by Ralph Gibson, Dona Ferrato or Mitsuaki Iwago). This CD was acclaimed by critics. It was chosen as Best 2006 Jazz Record in Spain (Cuadernos de Jazz).

In 2007 he is awarded with the Prize Aula X to the best Solo at the X Jazz Festival UNED (Melilla, Spain). His most recent work is the septet album Open Doors, presented at the Plaza de La Habana Jazz Festival (Cuba) in 2008.

Abe Rábade is artistic director of the Permanent Jazz Seminar of Pontevedra (Galiza) along with Paco Charlín since 2000; co-director of the Cangas International Jazz Festival “Canjazz” and the Canjazz Workshop along with Luís Carballo; he represented Estudio escola de música (Santiago, Galiza) as a teacher at the annual meetings of the International Association of Schools of Jazz held in Boston (2001) and Helsinki (2002). Since 2006 he is the musical  director of the group Ibiza Jazz Experience, a production of the Festival Eivissa Jazz.

He joined vocalists Guadi Galego and Uxía Pedreira to form the band Nordestin@s in 2005, based on a revision of Galizan popular music. Their first album, Nordestin@s, was published in 2006 for Falcatruada Records. This record was in the top 100 sellers in Spain in January 2007. Nordestin@s also won the 1st Prize in the VI Edition of the Premios La Opinión de Música Galega. In 2008 he musically produces the albums Rosalía 21 (a new approach and musical recreation of Rosalía de Castro’s poems) and Aloumiños de Seda (a comission from the General Bureau of  Linguistic Policy for its campaigne Xeración E Logo).

He is member of the following groups: Jesús Santandreu Quartet, Raynald Colom Quartet, Jazz Experience Quintet. Abe is musical director of the group Ten Jazz Men and was co-director of the Imaxinasons Jazz Orquestra in 2006 (writing for the band a 3 movement suite entitled “Estados da Materia”).

He performed and/or recorded with Miguel Zenón, Claudia Acuña, Jeff Williams, Alan Ferber, Paco Charlín, Bruno Pedroso, Skip Hadden, Jesús Santandreu, Chris Kase, Perico Sambeat, Víctor de Diego, Jorge Pardo, Antonio Serrano, Horacio Fumero, Jeff Harrington, Raynald Colom, John O’Gallagher, Nelson Cascais, Deborah Carter, Marc Miralta, Tom Warburton, Marc Ayza, Miquel Casany, Carlos Barreto, Mário Barreiros, Nuno Ferreira, Guim García Balasch or Ramón Ángel among many others.

He played in the most important Jazz Festivals from Spain and in International venues such as Paris and Toulouse (France), Berlin, Munich and Kiel (Germany), Lisbon (Portugal), Tanger (Morocco), Boston (USA), Birmingham (UK), La Habana (Cuba), Helsinki (Finland), Salvador de Bahia (Brazil)…

DISCOGRAPHY:

As band leader and co-leader:
Babel de Sons, 2001 (Xingra)
Simetrías, 2002 (Xingra)
GHU! Project vol.1, 2004 (Karonte)
Playing on Light – 7 sounding photos-, 2006 (Karonte)
Nordestin@s, 2006 (Falcatruada)
Rosalía 21, 2008 (Falcatruada)
Aloumiños de Seda, 2008 (Xeración E Logo)
Jazzia, 2008 (auto-production)
Open Doors –GHU! Project vol.2, 2008 (Karonte)

As composer and arranger:
A Canary Man in Boston -René González Big band-, 2003 (+ Ná)
Ten Jazz Men –Ten Jazz Men-, 2007 (Free Code)

As pianist:
Wes Montgomery Revisited -Miquel Casany-, 2005 (Sedajazz)
Out of the Cage –Jesús Santandreu Quartet-, 2007 (Fresh Sound)
Jazz in Galiza Series vol.1 –J. O’Gallagher, P. Charlín, J. Williams-, 2007 (Free Code)
Scketches of Groove –Raynald Colom, 2007 (Fresh Sound)