Jazz Articles about John Blake

Fit As A Fiddle: How the Violin Helped Shape Jazz, Part 2

by Peter Rubie
December 30, 2021

Part 1 | Part 2 This is Now I hate to confess this, but I've never been that keen on Stephane Grappelli's playing, as masterful and brilliant as he assuredly was. ("He plays with an accent," violinist and Berklee professor Rob Thomas confided to me when I hesitantly mentioned this to him. What Rob meant was that Stephane used a lot more vibrato than most other jazz violinists.) “It was that gypsy, slightly classical style," Detroit-born ...

John Blake Jr.: Motherless Child

by Mark F. Turner
April 8, 2010

The precursor to the blues as a music form was first heard in the chants and songs of African American slaves. Their lyrics of hardship, perseverance, and faith were expressed through work songs, hymns, and spirituals, some of which are beautifully interpreted on John Blake Jr.'s Motherless Child.

Growing up in South Philadelphia, Blake had this influence placed within him at an early age through his exposure to church services. His mother played piano and organ, and together with the ...

John Blake: The Traveler

by Mark Sabbatini
January 31, 2005

Violinist John Blake lists smooth jazz guru Grover Washington Jr. and John Coltrane alumnus McCoy Tyner as his first two major stints as a sideman. So he's well-suited to perform that sometimes awkward splice between popular and challenging. On The Traveler, the first self-produced and self-financed album of Blake's lengthy career, he opts for an acoustic quartet that's more mainstream than some recent releases dabbling in funk and electronics. There remains a contemporary feel on what proves to be a ...