Jazz Articles about Michael Blake

Michael Blake: More Like Us

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
December 22, 2006

More Like Us is the second release from saxophonist Michael Blake's Blake Tartare, with three Danish wunderkinds: keyboardist Soren Kjaergaard, bassist Jonas Westergaard and drummer Kresten Osgood. As the title suggests, the group has developed cohesion, easily maneuvering the circuitous compositions on the disc. The subtle opening of “The Meadows shifts after Blake's pronounced fluttering theme; the rhythm section bolsters him through a freer blowing section until Kjaergaard reels it in--effortlessly gliding through the changes. Similarly, on ...

Michael Blake's Blake Tartare: More Like Us

by Michael McCaw
November 14, 2006

Blake Tartare More Like Us Stunt Records 2006

Listen Includes full performance of “Something In The Water"

Michael Blake has long been on the cusp of being more-well known among jazz fans, but like his former employer John Lurie, often seems to be looking in. Regularly recording on fellow Jazz Composer Collective projects like with Ben Allison, he shines when given the opportunity without fail. Yet, the larger light of the jazz ...

Ben Allison: Medicine Wheel

by Troy Collins
May 4, 2006

Bassist Ben Allison was a virtual unknown when this album was originally released by Palmetto in 1998. After Seven Arrows (Koch, 1996), this was Allison's first major release. Combining conservatory training, ethnic/world music fusions, post-bop energy and free-jazz vigor, Allison and company were on the cusp of a new movement. Listening to this recording in retrospect reveals a blueprint for the new breed of jazz improviser. Medicine Wheel is a watershed moment in end of the century East Coast jazz.

Michael Blake Trio: Right Before Your Very Ears

by Germein Linares
March 28, 2006

The opening tune and the manic, anguished cover aside, there's nothing to fear on Michael Blake's Right Before Your Very Ears. The album's contents are delightful, creative adventures in jazz, with saxophonist Blake, bassist Ben Allison and drummer Jeff Ballard conjuring the strength and imagination of a much larger outfit.

Most of Right Before Your Very Ears likes to groove, making the voluminous and jagged “Run for Cover," the previously mentioned opening number, a harsh introduction. The next tune, the ...

Michael Blake: Right Before Your Very Ears

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
November 6, 2005

The shrill opening blast of tenor saxophone, like a wailing-woman mourner, announces that Right Before Your Very Ears is a departure for saxophonist Michael Blake. Visceral and immediate, the emphasis is on the playing, especially Blake's, in the stripped-down sax plus rhythm setting.

This is the first document of Blake's working trio with bassist Ben Allison and drummer Jeff Ballard, players with a long and intertwined history. Their familiarity brings focus to the loose arrangements and copious improvisations that Blake ...

Michael Blake: Right Before Your Very Ears

by Michael McCaw
September 12, 2005

Opening with an overblown tenor sound that nearly causes your stereo system to clip, Right Before Your Very Ears marks a departure for Michael Blake, especially from his earlier output. Recorded in Brooklyn following a European tour which culminated at Portugal's Coimbra Jazz Festival, the album is comprised entirely of first takes (save for “Fly With The Wind ) intended to force everyone into the moment and inspire some of the magic often created in the sax trio format. The ...

Michael Blake: Blake Tartare

by Michael McCaw
August 24, 2005

Why Michael Blake has had such a tough go of finding ways to get his music out to the public is an interesting issue, and unfortunately not such an uncommon one. Coming out of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards and consistently involved in the Jazz Composers Collective (along with Ben Allison, Frank Kimbrough, Ted Nash, et al.), Blake's distinctive vision and voice on soprano and tenor should have long ago sealed a consistent stream of music from him. His last recording ...