Abbey Blackwell

Moving between avant-garde, jazz, classical, rock, and pop, Abbey has been busy gigging as a bassist for nearly two decades, playing with Seattle’s best and beyond: including Alvvays, La Luz, Wayne Horvitz, Macklemore, Jonathan Wilson, and Cassandra Jenkins. However in the last handful of years, she has begun to focus more on composing and leading groups of her own, namely her self-titled solo project as well as the instrumental trio Rae.

Under her name, she has released an EP, and three LPs, each garnering notice from all corners of the web and beyond. Her songwriting calls back to the lyrical, hanging melodies of Sibylle Baier and Linda Perhacs, with angular, geometric chord progressions that lean in satisfying directions. Rendered through a self-assured and distinctive musical vocabulary, her songs offer an inspired and idiosyncratic take on “personal” songwriting, with insights into the central pressure points of human experience that run deeper than transparently confessional.

Outside of performing, she teaches private lessons at Cornish College of the Arts and in her own studio. She also leads the Garfield HS Jazz 2 Big Band and runs clinics and sectionals in a variety of public schools and through STG. Abbey holds a master's degree in Jazz and Improvised Music and a bachelor’s of music in Double Bass Performance from the University of Washington.