Winner of the 2014 Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize, Misha Mullov-Abbado is an in-demand bass player, composer and arranger based in London. He is a 2014 City of Music Foundation Artist and will be releasing his debut album New Ansonia consisting of all his own compositions performed by his quintet on the Edition label on August 28th 2015. As an experienced band-leader but also a versatile sideman Misha has performed at many of London’s top venues such as the Vortex, 606 Club, Pizza Express and Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room (as part of the BBC Proms Late series), as well as venues in the rest of the UK and Europe. Having won the 2014 Dankworth Prize for jazz composition Misha is an experienced composer and writes for a variety of jazz groups including the quintet, as well as various classical soloists and ensembles, and is influenced by a variety of jazz, classical and pop music.
After graduating from Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, where he studied music and composition with Robin Holloway and Jeremy Thurlow, Misha received a scholarship to study double bass at the Royal Academy of Music on the prestigious Masters jazz course with Jasper Høiby, Tom Herbert, Michael Janisch and Jeremy Brown. During his final year at the Academy Misha started his quintet and has been performing with it regularly since, with all concerts being very well received, and winning the Kenny Wheeler Prize in his final term has led him to record his debut album. As well as gigging regularly on the double bass Misha is also an experienced horn player and has played in many ensembles as a student, performing works such as Schumann’s Konzertstück, Britten’s Serenade and Bach’s Mass in B minor on the natural horn.
Since leaving the Academy Misha has been performing with a variety of musicians such as Stan Sulzmann and Enzo Zirilli – the latter he plays with regularly in his quartet Zirobop, a band that Misha also plays horn in. He also co-runs the Patchwork Jazz Orchestra, an exciting new big band in London that plays original compositions written by members of the band, and plays as a sideman in various projects such as the Tom Green Septet, Ralph Wyld’s Mosaic, the Tom Millar Quartet and the Liam Dunachie Quartet. Misha has had his compositions performed by London-based groups such as The Hermes Experiment and Sinfonia D’Amici, in venues such as King’s Place, the Royal Ballet School and recently the Royal Albert Hall. He also had his Clarinet Concerto premiered in Cambridge by Joseph Shiner.
