Abrams (Abramovitch), Max

Abrams (Abramovitch), Max, drummer, percussionist; b. Glasgow, Aug. 11, 1907; d. Eastbourne, East Sussex, England, Nov. 5, 1995. Abrams played in the local Boys’ Brigade Band as a teenager. He worked in a juvenile group (Archie Pitt’s Busby Band) in the mid-1920s and with Chalmers Wood at Glasgow Locarno in 1928. He went to South Africa with saxophonist Vic Davis in 1930 and returned to Britain the following year, working with Joe Gibson before joining saxophonist Tommy Kinsman at Ciro’s Club, London, in autumn 1931. Abrams worked with briefly with Teddy Sinclair (1932) and Jack Hylton (1932–33), then joined the house band at the Gargoyle Club, London, in the summer of 1933. With Sydney Lipton from 1934 until 1935, and with Carroll Gibbons from 1935 until 1939, Abrams established his reputation as a highly successful drum teacher during this period. He also led his own recording bands and made drum tuition records. After stints in various groups, including Sid Phillips’s, Abrams toured variety halls with George Scott-Wood in 1942 and 1943, then, as a Sub Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves, coached cadet bands. Abrams worked with Jack Payne from the summer of 1944 until late 1945, then worked briefly with Stéphane Grappelli before rejoining Sid Phillips from December 1945 until the early 1950s. A freelancer beginning in the 1950s, Abrams and ran his own prestigious drum school in London. He continued to teach full time until 1977, then moved to Eastbourne, Sussex, where he occasionally took on new pupils until the early 1990s.

Discography

M.A. AND HIS RHYTHM MAKERS: Two titles in 1936, two in 1937.

—John Chilton, Who’s Who of British Jazz