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Brian Blade

"I remember when I first read the words hanging in a frame on my grandma Rosa's wall. The serenity prayer was something I couldn't understand until almost thirty years later, but now after experiencing some peaks and valleys of life, those words ring in my ears with clarity." Brian Blade has set those words to music for his first recording as a singer, guitarist and songwriter: Mama Rosa is a revealing journey through thirteen songs about family, loved ones, travels and a sense that these things that shape and inspire us have to be shared with others to complete a circle. He has been writing and recording material with words for as long as he's been making music. In fact, Mama Rosa grew naturally from the four-track home demos that he's recorded over the years and several of the original performances from those tapes can be heard on this album. Initially, Blade felt that these songs would never be heard by anyone else, but after encouragement from longtime friend Daniel Lanois, these home recordings became the cornerstones for the album. There is an initial spark close to the moment of inspiration and that intimate vibe is felt throughout Mama Rosa. "For some time now, these songs have existed in the solitude of my room, and I got a lot of joy and satisfaction from just knowing that they existed," Blade says. "But at a certain point I questioned whether it was fear or selfishness that kept me quiet. Facing the music and the mirror, I began to ask if this was the end of the process? What does God expect of me? Maybe someone else might find some inspiration in the songs." The lyrical themes of home, memories and loved ones, and how they shape who we are, are reflected in Blade naming the album after his grandmother. Rosa is the subject of the album's vivid opening track "After The Revival." Sung from the perspective of his mother Dorothy Blade, expecting the birth of her first son, Brian's older brother, Brady, Jr. "After the Revival" also alludes to Blade's early years at the Zion Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana, where his father is pastor, and where Brian first started singing and playing the drums. The multi-talented young veteran is already widely respected in the jazz world as drummer/composer/leader of Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band, with whom he has released three albums.

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21
Album Review

Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow

Read "The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow" reviewed by Chris May


Those of us who were going to jazz festivals in summer 1966, and were lucky enough to catch the Charles Lloyd Quartet, will likely have one tune in particular imprinted on our memories. That was because “Forest Flower" so precisely reflected the acid-drenched zeitgeist blossoming in Europe and the US. Lloyd, Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJohnette recorded the piece at the Monterey festival in September 1966, and when Forest Flower was released in early 1967, it was the ...

30
Album Review

Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow

Read "The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


For a long, grateful while now the music of Charles Lloyd has rippled out from that rarified space where the ego does not prevail. A pool of depth and wonder which culminates in one masterful artwork after another, for example Wild Man Dance (Blue Note, 2015) and 8: Kindred Spirits Live from the Lobero Theater (Blue Note, 2019). Lloyd's eleventh Blue Note album, the double disc set  The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow is also his first ...

20
Album Review

Chris Potter: Eagle's Point

Read "Eagle's Point" reviewed by Chris May


The question that comes to mind after listening to Eagle's Point is this: why have the four musicians, who have known each other since the 1990s, never recorded together before? For the combination of Chris Potter, Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci and Brian Blade is a real meeting of minds; the stars are in perfect alignment. Potter's previous release, Got The Keys To The Kingdom (Edition, 2023), was a live set, recorded at New York's Village Vanguard, and ...

14
Album Review

Joshua Redman: Where Are We

Read "Where Are We" reviewed by Dave Linn


After graduating from Berkeley High School in 1986, Joshua Redman (son of jazz legend Dewey Redman) won a full scholarship to Harvard, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1991. He was accepted at Yale Law School to become a lawyer. Instead, he embarked on a musical career which quickly turned luminous. He won the Thelonious Monk Institute's prestigious jazz saxophone competition in 1991, before moving to Brooklyn, becoming part of the thriving scene there. His debut album, Joshua Redman ...

13
Album Review

Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band: Kings Highway

Read "Kings Highway" reviewed by Cary Tenenbaum


The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines fellowship as “community of interest, activity, feeling, or experience," which seems to state well what Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band have been doing, cultivating a certain sound for over 25 years. The community is drummer Brian Blade, pianist Jon Cowherd, saxophonist Melvin Butler, saxophonist and clarinetist Myron Walden, bassist and synthesizer player Christopher Thomas and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. The interest and activity these folks share is playing music, specifically jazz music. Finally, the feeling or ...

7
Album Review

Billy Childs: The Winds of Change

Read "The Winds of Change" reviewed by Neil Duggan


Billy Childs, one of the most critically acclaimed pianists in modern jazz, is in high demand as a modern classical composer. He has played and composed music ranging from orchestral to chamber works to contemporary small ensemble jazz. This has brought him five Grammy awards to date. Starting as a pianist in his native Los Angeles, he then spent six years with Freddie Hubbard's band before becoming a leader in his own right. He has performed with a ...

9
Album Review

Redman / Mehldau / McBride / Blade: Long Gone

Read "Long Gone" reviewed by Scott Gudell


The mid-1990s saw the first recorded and officially preserved union of four up-and-coming jazz newcomers--Joshua Redman (saxophone,) Christian McBride (bass,) Brad Mehldau (piano) and Brian Blade (drums.) All four were dedicated followers of classic jazz and came together, but soon scattered and began charting their own individual courses. There was a long delay before they reunited for a second quartet recording in 2020. By then, each and every one of them had earned the respect of their peers and risen ...

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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Blade's birthday today!

“I remember when I first read the words hanging in a frame on my grandma Rosa's wall. The serenity prayer was something I couldn't understand until almost thirty years later, but now after experiencing some peaks and valleys of life, those words ring in my ears with clarity." Brian Blade has set those words to music for his first recording as a singer, guitarist and songwriter: Mama Rosa is a revealing ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Blade's birthday today!

“I remember when I first read the words hanging in a frame on my grandma Rosa's wall. The serenity prayer was something I couldn't understand until almost thirty years later, but now after experiencing some peaks and valleys of life, those words ring in my ears with clarity." Brian Blade has set those words to music for his first recording as a singer, guitarist and songwriter: Mama Rosa is a revealing ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Blade's birthday today!

“I remember when I first read the words hanging in a frame on my grandma Rosa's wall. The serenity prayer was something I couldn't understand until almost thirty years later, but now after experiencing some peaks and valleys of life, those words ring in my ears with clarity." Brian Blade has set those words to music for his first recording as a singer, guitarist and songwriter: Mama Rosa is a revealing ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Blade's birthday today!

“I remember when I first read the words hanging in a frame on my grandma Rosa's wall. The serenity prayer was something I couldn't understand until almost thirty years later, but now after experiencing some peaks and valleys of life, those words ring in my ears with clarity." Brian Blade has set those words to music for his first recording as a singer, guitarist and songwriter: Mama Rosa is a revealing ...

1

Recording

Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade Reunite After 26 Years with RoundAgain, out now on Nonesuch

Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade  Reunite After 26 Years with RoundAgain, out now on Nonesuch

Source: Nonesuch Publicity

The members of the original Joshua Redman Quartet—Redman (saxophone), Brad Mehldau (piano), Christian McBride (bass), and Brian Blade (drums)—reunite with the July 10, 2020 release of RoundAgain, the group’s first recording since 1994’s MoodSwing. The album features seven newly composed songs: three from Redman, two from Mehldau, and one each from McBride and Blade. On Wednesday, July 22 at 4pm ET on the NPR Music YouTube channel, NPR Music and Jazz Night In America will host a live chat and ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Blade's birthday today!

“I remember when I first read the words hanging in a frame on my grandma Rosa\'s wall. The serenity prayer was something I couldn\'t understand until almost thirty years later, but now after experiencing some peaks and valleys of life, those words ring in my ears with clarity." Brian Blade has set those words to music for his first recording as a singer... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Blade's birthday today!

“I remember when I first read the words hanging in a frame on my grandma Rosa\'s wall. The serenity prayer was something I couldn\'t understand until almost thirty years later, but now after experiencing some peaks and valleys of life, those words ring in my ears with clarity." Brian Blade has set those words to music for his first recording as a singer... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day ...

4

Recording

Joshua Redman's New Album, "Still Dreaming"—Featuring Ron Miles, Scott Colley & Brian Blade—Out Now

Joshua Redman's New Album, "Still Dreaming"—Featuring Ron Miles, Scott Colley & Brian Blade—Out Now

Source: Nonesuch Publicity

Saxophonist and composer Joshua Redman is joined by drummer Brian Blade, bassist Scott Colley, and cornetist Ron Miles for Still Dreaming—an album inspired by his father Dewey Redman's 1976–1987 band, Old and New Dreams—released on Nonesuch Records on May 25, 2018. Along with the senior Redman, Old and New Dreams featured an all-star lineup of Ornette Coleman collaborators—cornetist Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell—who continued pushing musical boundaries as they had with Coleman even after their former ...

1

Recording

Jazz Guitarist Tom Guarna Leads a Dream-Team Quartet–Featuring Keyboardist Jon Cowherd, Bassist John Patitucci and Drummer Brian Blade–on "The Wishing Stones"

Jazz Guitarist Tom Guarna Leads a Dream-Team Quartet–Featuring Keyboardist Jon Cowherd, Bassist John Patitucci and Drummer Brian Blade–on "The Wishing Stones"

Source: Two for the Show Media

Tom Guarna—a guitarist whom DownBeat magazine has praised for the “emotion, tension, surprise and passion” in his music—assembled what he calls “a dream team” for The Wishing Stones, his seventh album as a leader, and his first for Destiny Records. The album, to be released on November 10, 2017, features Guarna leading a quartet with keyboardist Jon Cowherd, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, each player a renowned virtuoso and band leader in his own right. Guarna’s previous album, ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Jazz Musician of the Day: Brian Blade

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Brian Blade's birthday today!

“I remember when I first read the words hanging in a frame on my grandma Rosa\'s wall. The serenity prayer was something I couldn\'t understand until almost thirty years later, but now after experiencing some peaks and valleys of life, those words ring in my ears with clarity." Brian Blade has set those words to music for his first recording as a singer... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day ...

"This is music that has heart, melody, and sophisticated and well-intentioned lyric poetry, and these songs are concerned with what it means to try and live alone and with others in the light each day..." ALL MUSIC GUIDE

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Sky Will Still Be...

Blue Note Records
2024

buy

Eagle's Point

Edition Records
2024

buy

Fragments - Time Out...

Columbia Records
2023

buy

The Winds of Change

Mack Avenue Records
2023

buy

Kings Highway

Stoner Hill
2023

buy

Dance of the Elders

ECM Records
2023

buy

Amelia

From: Dance of the Elders
By Brian Blade

The End of Innocence

From: The Winds of Change
By Brian Blade

Little Scorpio

From: Pride and Joy
By Brian Blade

Daily Jubilee of Dancing Herbie D.

From: Finding Light
By Brian Blade

Song of A Solitary Crow

From: Between Two Worlds
By Brian Blade

When There Were Trains

From: Balancing Act
By Brian Blade

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