Verified Global Musician

Kush Abadey

Kush Abadey is a drummer, collaborator, and educator whose recording work includes Melissa Aldana’s ensembles and a wide range of modern jazz groups.

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Photo source · Photo: Tore Sætre, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Career Overview

About Kush Abadey

The University of Chicago’s artist biography traces Abadey from early work with Wallace Roney through ensemble relationships with Ravi Coltrane, Chris Potter, Melissa Aldana, Joel Ross, and other leaders. It documents a move to New York after Berklee study and an international recording and touring practice.[1]

Blue Note documents Abadey in Melissa Aldana’s evolving leader groups, from her established quintet to the quartet on Filin. The New School lists him on its jazz faculty, extending that performing and recording experience into one-to-one instruction.[3][2]

Ensembles and Career Threads

Bands & Projects

Drummer

Melissa Aldana groups

Abadey appears across Aldana’s Blue Note sequence, including her working quintet and the later Filin quartet with Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Peter Washington.[3]

Drummer

Wallace Roney quintet

The University of Chicago biography identifies Roney’s quintet as an early professional ensemble for Abadey.[1]

Drum instructor

The New School jazz faculty

The New School’s faculty record documents Abadey’s continuing teaching role alongside his touring and recording work.[2]

Selected, Not Exhaustive

Recordings to Know

2022 · Blue Note Records

12 Stars

Drummer in Melissa Aldana’s working quintet

Aldana’s Blue Note leader debut documents the working quintet in an original program produced by Lage Lund.[3]

Release details

2024 · Blue Note Records

Echoes of the Inner Prophet

Drummer in Melissa Aldana’s working quintet

The second Blue Note album continues the quintet’s shared language through another set of Aldana compositions.[3]

Release details

2026 · Blue Note Records

Filin

Drummer in Melissa Aldana’s quartet

Abadey joins Aldana, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Peter Washington for a ballad-centered program drawn from Cuba’s filin tradition.[3]

Release details

Live Calendar

Upcoming Jazz DateBook Shows

Fri, Sep 25, 5:00 PM

Peter Bernstein Quartet

Zig Zag Jazz Club · Berlin

Show details

Fri, Sep 25, 5:30 PM

Peter Bernstein Quartet

Zig Zag Jazz Club · Berlin

Show details

Sun, Sep 27, 8:30 PM

Peter Bernstein Quartet w/ Sullivan Fortner, Doug Weiss & Kush Abadey (USA)

Porgy & Bess · Vienna

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Mon, Oct 12, 7:00 PM

Benny Benack Quintet

Jazzcultural · New York

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Mon, Oct 12, 9:00 PM

Benny Benack Quintet

Jazzcultural · New York

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Sources

Career copy is original synthesis from the artist, label, and project sources below. Current dates come from Jazz DateBook event inventory.

  1. [1] Institutional artist biography and ensemble history

    University of Chicago Presents

  2. [2] Current jazz faculty record

    The New School

  3. [3] Melissa Aldana label biography and release catalog

    Blue Note Records