Drummer and Composer Nasar Abadey is the founder, leader and driving force of SUPERNOVA®. They perform music from the threshold of Jazz to beyond space and time, while having an artistic license to express their compositions through traditional African rhythms, bebop, fusion, Afro-Cuban, Afro Brazilian, and free form. The band’s musical inspirations include John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, and Duke Ellington among others. Based in Washington, DC Abadey has also built a solid reputation as a sideman with several groups, and has recorded and/or performed with many national artists throughout his career. Abadey began playing drums at age five. Drawing influences from powerhouse drummers such as Tony Williams, Max Roach, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, and his cousin, Frankie Dunlop, Nasar Abadey creates jazz music steeped in modal, free form, and avant-garde styles. Currently Mr. Abadey is a Professor of Jazz Percussion in the Jazz Studies Department at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.
In addition to SUPERNOVA?, Abadey has formed three other ensembles: The 11 piece SUPERNOVA? Chamber Orchestra with strings; a 16 piece big band. The Washington Renaissance Orchestra (WRO), and The Renaissance Trio. Previously selected honors and awards are the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, Creative Communities Initiative Grant Award; the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for Merit and Artistic Performance; the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Artist Award, for performance, concerts and lectures in Providence, Rhode Island, Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC; the Creative Artist Performance Service (CAPS) Award, for Composition, New York State; and the Prince Georges Arts Council Grant Award for Jazz Workshops in the Maryland Public School sector; GATEWAY CDC for a percussion ensemble; and the Honda Odyssey Project. He has served as Music Panelist for DC Commission on the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, respectively. He is currently a Board Member of the Washington DC Area Lawyers for the Arts, (WALA). Mr. Abadey has selected by Washington City Paper, Art Desk as D.C.'s Best Jazz in 2015-Artist of the Year Award; Best Drummer 2015: shared with, C.V. Dashiell and Savannah Grace Harris; Best Small Ensemble: Nasar Abadey’s Supernova; Best Large Ensemble (Washington Renaissance Orchestra) in 2014, and Best Drummer in Jazz 2011; and in Capital Bop-Complete DC Jazz Guide was selected as one of five (5) Top CD's in 2011.
SUPERNOVA's® debut CD, Mirage, was released on the Amosaya Records, and his sophomore CD, Diamond In The Rough, was released on DPC Records. Most recently, SUPERNOVA® was selected by the US State Department and Lincoln Center as Ambassadors to tour with the American Music Abroad Rhythm Road. Countries visited in East Africa were; Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Mozambique.
Abadey’s performance credits include Amiri Baraka, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Rouse, Gary Bartz, David Sanchez, Cyrus Chestnut, Gregory Porter, Sonny Fortune, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, Kenny Kirkland, Gary Thomas, Stanley Turrentine, Sun Ra, Frank Morgan, Bobby Hutcherson, Pharaoh Sanders, Malachi Thompson and many others. Additionally, he has appeared in various festivals including, San Remo (Italy), Montreal (Canada), Cap City (DC), Virgin Island (Caribbean), JVC (NYC), Morocco (Africa), Chicago Jazz Festival, Iowa City Jazz Festival, D.C. Loft Jazz Festival, Atlanta Jazz Festival, Mellon Bank Jazz Festival, (Philadelphia), The East Coast Jazz Festival, the Free World Jazz Festival (DC), International Children's Festival (Seattle), Guatemala City Jazz Festival, Duke Ellington Festival, DC Jazz Festival, Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival among others.
Nasar Abadey and SUPERNOVA's® musical presentation demonstrates an array of Colors, Textures and Grooves! Nasar Abadey endorses Sonor Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks and Remo Drumheads.
