Chris Abelen, a jazz trombonist and composer, was born September 29, 1959 in Tilburg (the Netherlands). Abelen began his professional career in the Willem Breuker Kollektief. He started his own bands after he quit the Willem Breuker Kollektief in 1988. Abelen wrote all compositions for these bands, from a jazz quartet to an entire big-band. Chris Abelen began his career as a trombonist at the age of 11. He switched to trombone at the age of 18. He took classical trombone lessons with Charles Toet, Henri Aarts and then moved to Amsterdam to study jazz with Willem van Manen. He was the former 1st trombonist at Willem Breuker Kollektief. Abelen began performing with the Kollektief during the summer 1984, after Van Manen was replaced by Garrett List. He left the band after extensive touring and he wanted to start his own band and perform with other musicians. With Tobias Delius and Bo van de Graaf as well as Wilbert de Joode and Martin van Duynhoven, the Chris Abelen sextet was his first band. Their first performance was at the Klap of the Vuurpijl festival, which Willem Breuker organized between Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the Dutch Radio Broadcast Corporation lost the recordings of this concert. After several concerts, Abelen decided that he would continue the quartet. Van de Graaf and Kuiper left the band. The Chris Abelen Quartet performed one time for an O42 radio broadcoast in Nijmegen (the Netherlands). The title track Plint, recorded from this recording, is available on the EP Plint(CAMP 005). It features a wonderful tenor solo by Delius. Abelen, after this concert, decided to replace Martin van Duijnhoven with Charles Huffstadt and asked Corrie van binsbergen to join him in the quintet. They began their session in the studio by recording Dance of the Penguins (1996). The couple recorded a second album live in 1999. What a love story. Abelen was first commissioned to write for Klap op De Vuurpijl, a 10-piece band consisting of Ab Baars and Paul Termos, Frans Kolterman, Eckard Kolterman. Wilbert de Joode, Michael Vatcher, Larry Fishkind, Larry Fishkind, Frans Vermeersen and Frans Vermeersen. Abelen released these recordings in 2002, years later. Space was the fourth album. It was recorded by the quintet (Zapp4), which included Ab Baars on clarinet. Abelen’s sixth album, A Day at the Office, was released in 2016 by a septet featuring Tini Thomsen and Floris van der Vlugt. This album is part a new project that Abelen is currently working on with Bastiaan geleijnse (Fokke), a Dutch cartoonist.
