It’s a quiet fall afternoon, and the soothing sounds of jazz musician Charles Lloyd fill the air of Abe Speller’s home for good reason.
Speller’s currently putting a new drum set together and to get the vibe going, he decides to play a track that features the late Jack DeJohnette, a jazz pianist and drummer known for his distinctive style, one of Speller’s influences. Speller had just found out of DeJohnette’s passing.
Years ago, Speller was on a plane headed to Europe when he was seated next to DeJohnette. The two stood on common ground not just for the obvious, but the late Sonny Sharrock, a jazz guitarist Speller had spent years playing with, was a friend of DeJohnette’s.
Whether it’s his or not, you’ll most likely always hear the low sound of a beat in Speller’s home because he’s true to form – thinking about music 24 hours a day. It’s always music, he says, every day, all day. Maybe he’ll play a specific song because he can relate it to a moment, a memory or a person, or he might select something at random. But time and again we all need a break from addictive devices like phones, computers and even radios, and Speller’s no different. To clear his mind and unwind, he’ll shut it all down. A recent trip to North Carolina left him with no Wi-Fi, something he didn’t have an issue with. But it’s a different story when it deals with music. It’s something he can’t escape, not that he would want too.
Speller was born on July 4, 1951, in Ossining, New York, to a close knit, musical family. His parents, Abram and Vivian were fun, cool people who would often play records that Speller and his three younger sisters would dance to in their living room on Friday nights. He heard the Gospel records by Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland and others at his grandmother’s house and the powerful vocal groups at his church. When he graduated from high school, he worked for IBM for a year before he realized that it wasn’t for him. He already knew what he was meant to do.
He got a gig with soul-jazz band Brute Force, a group from Ohio who had relocated to New York. Sharrock was a member and brought Speller to New York City at age 19 to perform with the band. This experience took Speller around the world, performing in all the clubs in Paris. Speller did three albums with Sharrock and performed with him up until his death in 1992.
Most would consider having the chance to do what they love at such a young age a dream come true, so it’s no surprise that Speller described that experience as nothing short of a great one.
“At that time, being that young, it was the ultimate dream to play with a band that had a house, and you rehearsed whenever you wanted to and played and lived together, so that was big,” Speller reflected.
Speller got to play with the band for quite a bit before they broke up. He found himself having to move back home when that happened, but it wouldn’t be long before another opportunity came knocking. He started studying in New York City with musician Tony Williams – another big influence – who was a key member of Miles Davis’s Great Quintet of the 1960s. Williams’ approach to his drumming opened the door to the electric jazz revolution of the late 1960s and 70s. Music had been engrained in Speller since high school, so college wasn’t an option. He knew that he wanted to do only one thing, and part of that one thing, he said, was to live the dream that he had lived with Brute Force.
Even amid studying under a musician so gifted as Williams, Speller had other projects in the mix. He spent a stint living in and playing around Miami, Florida, with keyboardist Clifford Carter. But like Brute Force, Speller and Carter’s band eventually dissolved, leaving Speller to move back home. From there, he ventured out to California for a bit and returned to New York. He married his wife Sylvia of almost 50 years in 1976, who was attending nursing school while he, of course, continued with his music.
“In life, we meet the people that we are supposed to meet,” Speller quipped, which was the case for him at the time – meeting the right people.
In New York City, he was playing more regularly with mentor Sharrock, whose mother was Speller’s Sunday School teacher as a kid. With that, Speller also played gigs at renowned comedy club Catch A Rising Star, where comedians such as Billy Crystal and Richard Belzer graced the stage. Catch A Rising Star was also the scene where Speller would meet and eventually play with musician Pat Benatar, who was just starting out on her own journey. It was a good time and – like the present – it was a time that inspired Speller. Everything kept flowing.
“It was like the carrot in front of the horse,” Speller offered. “It always kept me going and it was our life.”
There’s a plethora of places all around that Speller has played at, including CBGB (a former NYC music night club), Village Gate (a former nightclub located at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker streets in Greenwich Village), Carnegie Hall, Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and throughout Europe at places like Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark, Jazz Café and Ronnie Scott’s in London, New Morning and the L‘Olympia Theater in Paris. Touring also took Speller to many music festivals around the world like Philadelphia’s Outsiders Improvised and Creative Music Festival, the Cannes Music festival, South By Southwest, Austin City Limits and the International Jazz festival Saalfelden in the Alps of Austria. It’s not just the places but the people. Organist Charles Earland, a Philadelphia native who had major hit records in the jazz world. Country artist Steve Forbert. Singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow. Jazz pianist Lonnie Liston Smith. Peter Tork of The Monkees. The list goes on. All people who bring something to the table, people who are dear to Speller.
“Many of the sessions and records I played on were people I looked up to, but you had to walk into the studio like you belonged,” Speller said. “As a freelance musician and session player, you must understand the artist’s vision and turn it into musical conversation.”
A gunslinger mentality was a must.
“When I played Caesar’s Palace with Helen Schneider, standing on stage left waiting to go on, performing with a 32-piece orchestra, the first time ever, the house drummer could tell I was nervous,” Speller recalled. “He said to me, ‘You drive the bus whether it’s a trio, a big band or orchestra.’
“I didn’t get it at the time, but I got it years later.”
It was the songs from the Great American Songbook – songs written by composers like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Duke Ellington – that inspired Speller to form the Abe Speller Jazz Trio back in 2005. When he was putting together the trio, he had heard about a new restaurant opening in Westmont, New Jersey, formerly called Cork (now Keg and Kitchen). He and his wife walked in, had dinner and spoke to the owner Kevin Meeker about playing jazz there. Meeker said, ‘Let’s give it a shot,’ and Speller’s trio ended up performing there every Friday night for eight years. Currently the band’s lineup includes Speller, pianist David Bennett Thomas and Gerald Benson on upright bass and vocals.
“When I talk about relationships over the years, there is none closer to my heart than Kevin and Janet Meeker,” Speller said. “They gave me the opportunity to grow the music and quite an audience. Locally Perkins Center for the Arts has also been a big supporter not just of my music but [also] the arts in New Jersey.”
Nowadays, Speller has a full plate with not only the trio but current projects including working with musical collaborator John King; the Alex Hiele Paris Jazz Group (Alex is the bassist and composer; born in Paris, he brings the sound straight from the Paris nightclubs with a new quintet album due in 2026); acoustic Grateful Dead tribute band Ripplewood and Grammy nominated New Age group Sundad. King and Speller started writing together during the pandemic, and around that time they had a band that toured throughout Europe.
Although it surprises him that he’s this busy, you’ve got to keep it going, he said. There are times when it may feel like things aren’t happening, but the important thing is to keep going. His inspiration comes from the people that he’s with, the people that he plays with. All his projects are things that he’s been building up to and now it all feels like one full pie, a pie that’s constantly changing and morphing.
He mentions the saying, ‘If you’re practicing, you’re not gigging. If you’re gigging, you’re not practicing.’ When you’re playing a lot of shows and you come home to your family, you’re distracted and don’t have the time to practice, he explained. Although he admits that he hasn’t been practicing as much because he’s been performing a lot, it’s different now.
This life he’s built with his family is one that he’s truly amazed by. One of his favorite things to do when he’s not performing is spend time with his wife somewhere in a cafe or travel and visit friends, and what he loves about his pie is the relationships he’s built with people. He’s always loved playing and the joy that it brings. He’s versatile with his music and he prides himself on always being available to book a gig when possible, something that he advises other musicians to do. Speller has seen a lot of changes in the music industry but when he started the trio that changed his life. He was able to lead and call the shots. It’s always been about loving what he does and his relationships. He grew up in a diverse area in New York – artists, actors and actresses lived in and around his community – which was inspiring to Speller. Joy, he said, is something that he always has and always will bring to his music.
“It’s about building relationships,” Speller says of “the talented musicians, families and countries” he and his wife have been blessed to live and visit. “Sometimes I can’t believe it myself.
“I continue to feel the joy of performing, recording and hanging out with my family, watching the grandkids run me ragged.”
