Abiea
has been playing
sophisticated, contemporary jazz in the New Orleans Metropolitan area
for over 11 years.
In 2000, Doug left the group, and Omari Thomas (trumpet) and Calvin Snowden (guitar) joined as regular members. This group produced the album, "Defrosted" which features all original music by Ryan Cullen as well as "Harmonic Prelude" by George Alvey. Bill Huntington served as the producer for this album and also made a guest appearance on two tracks.
In late 2001, the band downsized to trio format and later invited multi-instrumentalist, Brian Graber (trumpet, saxophones, vocals) to join the group. In 2002, the quartet recorded, "Abiea Live" during a farewell concert for Ryan who was off to study at the University of Miami in the Studio/Jazz Composition program for his Master of Music degree. Crispin Schroeder engineered and produced this live album.
From 2002-2004, the band continued to play numerous gigs around the metropolitan area with Ed Barrett (guitar) and numerous sidemen from among Dave and Ed's classmates in the Jazz Program at the University of New Orleans.
Ryan returned from Miami in the summer of 2005 just two months before Hurricane Katrina struck. Along with the rest of the city, the band took quite some time to regroup as Dave Thomas relocated to Nashville and Ryan became frequently unavailable having been appointed Director at the Louisiana Academy of Performing Arts and in charge of rebuilding the school and student body.
From 2005-2009, George assumed full responsibility of the band and invited former bandmate from Baltimore, Trevor Martin (drums), to fill the drum chair for Dave Thomas during his leave. In addition to Trevor, many other local musicians filled the various chairs during this transitional period including, Crispin Schroeder (guitar), Chip Cotham (drums), Eduardo Tozzato (piano), Mark Weliky (guitar), Ronnie Boudreaux (guitar), Michael Dennis (piano), David Mahoney (drums), Matt White (guitar).
As of 2010, founding members, George Alvey and Ryan Cullen have reunited and are now focusing on the next stage of Abiea and contemporary yet melodic original compositions written by both men. David Cappello (drums) has since been rehearsing and performing with the group to aid in this new direction. A new CD is forthcoming.
Appearances have included: