[1] A native of Seattle, Washington, Abbs attended The New School, studying with Reggie Workman, Buster Williams, Joe Chambers, Brian Smith, Junior Mance, Arnie Lawrence, Chico Hamilton, and Arthur Taylor.
He has worked with Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Charles Gayle, Daniel Carter, Cooper-Moore, Steve Swell, Roy Campbell, Jr., Sabir Mateen, Ori Kaplan, Jemeel Moondoc, Assif Tsahar, Borah Bergman, Billy Bang, Andrew Lamb, and Warren Smith.
Abbs is a member of Triptych Myth, Yuganaut, and Transmitting (with Napoleon Maddox and Jane LeCroy).
He leads the band Frequency Response and tours with his solo multimedia act Multifarious.
He was the general manager of ESP-Disk from 2007 to 2010 and founded Northern Spy Records which he co-owns with Adam Downey.