Gregory Abbott was born April 2, 1954, Harlem, New York, (the Riverton to be exact), is an American soul musician (keyboards and drums), singer, composer and producer. He currently lives in both New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Abbott’s parents came from Venezuela and Antigua. He is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Antigua. During his early years, Abbott’s mother taught him how to play piano and encouraged him to develop vocally.
Before his career as musician, Abbott studied psychology at University of California, Berkeley and creative writing at Stanford; where he won a Wallace Stegner fellowship. Also, he has taught English at University of California, Berkeley.
One of Abbott’s first opportunities in his studio was an album for an independent record label, which gave him the opportunity to do a duet with Whitney Houston. Continuing on, Abbott produced for the group EQ on Atlantic Records.
In 1986, Abbott released his first solo album, Shake You Down. The title track for the album was a success, going platinum and topping the Billboard Hot 100. The album’s second single, “I Got The Feelin (It’s Over)” which reached #5 on the R&B chart. With the strength of its singles, the album propelled to platinum status and earned Abbott several awards.
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Internationally, Abbott carried much success, winning first prize at the Tokyo Music Festival. The title track of his second album, “I’ll Prove It To You” which was released in 1988, was featured on a Japanese movie soundtrack. In Belgium, he performed with Princess Stephanie of Monaco.
Abbott is quite active on the World Wide Web and over the years much of his new music has been released via individual songs (singles)….In 2011, a new album entitled “Drop Your Mask” was released by Gregory Abbott on Spectra Records.
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