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Michael Blake

Canadian-born, New York-based saxophonist Michael Blake is a distinctive presence on the modern creative jazz scene whose style bridges avant-garde, post-bop, and global traditions. A member of N.Y.C.'s groundbreaking the Lounge Lizards ensemble, Blake emerged in the '90s and has played with a variety of eclectic artists, including Steven Bernstein, Ben Allison, Charlie Hunter, Stereo MC's, Michael Leonhart, and Erik Friedlander, among others. His own albums have showcased his broad, globally minded perspective. He explored Vietnamese traditions on 1991's Kingdom of Champa, and has built upon the work of artists like Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane on albums like 2005's Right Before Your Very Ears, 2012's In the Grand Scheme of Things, and 2023's folk- and Afro-Brazilian-influenced Dance of the Mystic Bliss. Born in 1964 in Montreal, Canada, Blake spent his adolescence living in Toronto and San Francisco before his family settled in Vancouver. It was in the latter, at age 14, that he started playing the clarinet before moving to the tenor saxophone. He excelled throughout his teens, studying privately with noted reedist David Branter. After high school, he enrolled at Vancouver Community College, where he spent a year before earning a scholarship to the Courtenay Music Center. He began playing jazz locally, mentored by trombonist, pianist, and composer Hugh Fraser. During the mid-'80s, he participated in the Banff School of Fine Arts Jazz Workshop where he worked with luminaries including bassist Dave Holland, pianist Cecil Taylor, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, and more. In 1986, he earned a grant from The Canada Council for the Arts to study with saxophonist David Liebman in New York City. He returned to Vancouver at the end of his year away and led his own quartet, which competed at the Alcan Jazz Competition. By 1987, the then-23-year-old Blake had returned to N.Y.C., playing in merengue bands as well as backing a variety of artists from Chubby Checker to Jack McDuff. In 1990, John Lurie heard him playing at a downtown club and six months later, Blake joined the Lounge Lizards. He appeared on both volumes of the group's Live in Berlin recordings, as well as on the 1998 studio album Queen of All Ears. As a leader, Blake debuted with 1997's Kingdom of Champa, on Intuition. Produced by Teo Macero, it found him incorporating Vietnamese music influences into a jazz album featuring other downtown New York greats, including Thomas Chapin and Steven Bernstein. During this period, he played on Lurie's score for the movie Get Shorty, and began a long creative association with bassist Ben Allison. A second Intuition album, Drift, arrived in 2001 and featured a small group with guitarist Tony Scherr, pianist Frank Kimbrough, and others. That was followed by 2002's Elevated, which again found him working with bassist Allison, pianist Kimbrough, and drummer Mike Mazor. A trio date, Right Before Your Very Ears, also with Allison as well as drummer Jeff Ballard, appeared on Clean Feed in 2005. He worked with Groove Collective, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Tricky, Gil Evans Orchestra, Pinetop Perkins, and the Herbie Nichols Project. The saxophonist next embarked on a series of adventurous albums for Stunt Records, beginning with 2006's quartet date Blake Tartare, followed the same year by More Like Us and 2007's The World Awakens: Tribute to Eli Lucky Thompson. Also in 2007, he delivered Amor de Cosmos, a quintet album with trumpeter Brad Turner. In 2009, he paired with drummer Kresten Osgood for Control This on Clean Feed. With 2012's In the Grand Scheme of Things, Blake explored a mix of electronics and modal jazz. Two years later, he, Ben Allison, Frank Kimbrough, and Rudy Royston recorded the hard bop-inspired Tiddy Boom. The textural and atmospheric Fulfillment arrived in 2016 and featured contributions from guitarist Aram Bajakian, trumpeter JP Carter, keyboardist Chris Gestin, and others. In 2023, he delivered Dance of the Mystic Bliss, another deeply textural album, informed by classical string music, country, and psychedelic rock.
© Matt Collar /TiVo

Discographie

18 album(s) • Trié par Meilleures ventes

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