The Misha Mullov-Abbado Group
Effra
by Howard Lawes
The cosmopolitan area of Brixton in south London, renowned for its music and markets, has been home for the jazz bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado for several years and his new album, entitled Effra after a small river that flows beneath the streets, is inspired by his time living there. Talking over Zoom he explained the background to his music and his life in Brixton.
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The son of the pre-eminent Italian conductor Claudio Abbado and the phenomenal Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova, the young Misha lived with his mother in London and listened to classical music almost every day. His cellist stepfather, Matthew Barley, intoduced both Viktoria and Misha to other styles of music including jazz, which Misha embraced rather more enthusiastically than did his mother. Misha studied music at school and attended the Royal College of Music Junior Department on Saturdays, and as so often happens with aspiring, young musicians made life-long friends.
At this stage he was playing piano and french horn, but the lightbulb moment happened as he experimented with some pop-songs on a bass guitar. As an undergraduate Misha studied music at Cambridge and came to love composition, inprovisation and the warm, deep notes of a double bass. Postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music followed and in 2014 Misha won the Kenny Wheeler prize (for excellence in performance and composition) and The Musician’s Company Dankworth prize (for big band composition). These prizes and the associated opportunity to release an album on Edition Records proved to be the springboard for Misha’s career that has blossomed ever since.
Misha has released three albums with Edition - New Ansonia (2015); Cross-Platform Interchange (2017); and Dream Circus (2020), but for Effra he has chosen to release the album through Ubuntu Music. Effra was released on 31st January, but the period leading up to this date has been an emotional roller-coaster for Misha with the birth of his daughter Orla and then the death of Ubuntu Music founder and director Martin Hummel. Misha has turned to social media to publish first the announcement of the birth or Orla and then a heartfelt tribute to Martin Hummel, expressing his gratitude for the help and guidance Martin and his associates were able to provide.
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Here is an introduction to Effra.
Apart from the Misha Mullov-Abbado group some of Misha’s other projects include a trio with Alica Zawadzki and Fred Thomas that has just released a widely acclaimed album of world music called Za Górami ); a band called Songs for the Earth that includes his wife Bridget on violin, Music We Love which is a duo with his mother; and the very popular Dave O’Higgins and Rob Luft Quintet - listen to Misha's solo on Ballad For Barry from their album Pluto.
Misha also plays in the Brixton Chamber Orchestra, a versatile group of instrumentalists that provides thrilling live orchestral experiences for wide-ranging audiences in Brixton and beyond.
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With himself on double bass, the Misha Mullov-Abbado Group, which has retained the same personnel for nine years is James Davison (trumpet & flugelhorn), Matthew Herd (alto & tenor saxophones), Sam Rapley (tenor saxophone & bass clarinet), Liam Dunachie (piano) and Scott Chapman (drums).
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The music on Effra explores Misha’s journey through life that has included the COVID pandemic, his marriage to Bridget and leading up to the birth of their daugther. These are his compositions and reflect the highs and lows of living in a place that he has grown to love and a community that he has become a part of. One aspect of living in London that everyone can identify with is tube travel and the first track on the album, Traintracker, is a musical representation of the hustle and bustle and the inter-connectivity of the whole system. Misha reveals a facination with metro networks to the extent that he owns a live, electronic wall-map of the London Underground system.
The next two tracks are called Bridge and Rose after Misha’s wife, the first a romantic waltz while the second is a tender piece that reverses the roles of the rhythm section and the front line and was written to celebrate their engagement. The irony of the next track, The Effra Parade is that while it sounds like a New Orleans street party, during COVID lockdowns socialising with others was forbidden and a solitary walk, perhaps up and down the rather unassuming street of the same name, was all that was available.
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Here is a video of the band playing Bridge at London's Pizza Express in 2023.
Misha’s love of Brazilian samba is reflected in the track Cancao de Sobriedade (Song of Sobriety). Inspired by Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Chega de Saudade (No More Blues) and as a tongue in cheek comment on excessive drinking the working title became No More Booze. The penultimate track, Subsonic Glow, refers to sounds so deep as to be almost inaudible while in fact it is a lively number with almost everyone getting a solo and is in complete contrast to the last track, Nanban, which is a dreamy piece featuring double bass and piano and named after a local restaurant.
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Here is a video of the band recording Nanban:
Effra is an album full of variety played by a band at the top of their game. Misha is full of praise for his musicians and loves the intuitive nature of the music that experience and understanding brings. The great care and attention that has gone into these very personal compositions, arrangements and recording are clear. Effra will be launched at Kings Place in London on 22nd February.
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The album Effra is available here. Misha Mullove-Abbadso's website is here. Dates for Misha's upcoming gigs are here.
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2025.2