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Jazz Articles about Ran Blake
Ran Blake: Ghost Tones: Portraits of George Russell
by Dan McClenaghan
At eighty years of age, pianist Ran Blake has shaped an impressive and multifaceted legacy: four decades of mentoring students at the New England Conservatory; helping shape a new genre of music, Third Stream, the marriage of the jazz and classical worlds; his teaming with the lady vocalists--Jeanne Lee, Christine Correa, Sara Serpa, Dominque Eade; numerous solo piano recordings, and a handful-plus of tribute sets, honoring icons like Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughn. Ghost Tones ...
Continue ReadingRan Blake al Teatro Manzoni di Milano
by Vincenzo Roggero
Ran Blake Aperitivo in concerto Teatro Manzoni Milano 01.03.2015 Imbattersi nella musica di Ran Blake equivale a intraprendere un viaggio sorprendente nella sua arte, tanti e diversi sono gli stimoli, le sollecitazioni, i riferimenti ad altre forme espressive oltre a quella propriamente musicale. Ma altresì diventa momento di riflessione personale, un mettersi in prospettiva diversa per andare oltre le apparenze, scoprire cosa si cela dietro forme consolidate, vedere cosa succede quando si levano di ...
Continue ReadingRan Blake: Plays Solo Piano
by Mark Corroto
ESP Disk's 50th anniversary reissue series continues to unearth valuable documents from the history of cutting edge music. Back in the 1960s, when jazz was becoming marginalized as popular music and disenfranchised by the rise of rock-and-roll, ESP chose to eliminate musical classifications that pigeonholed creative music. The label released music by Albert Ayler and Gato Barbieri at the same time it was producing The Fugs and Pearls Before Swine. This re-release of pianist Ran Blake's Plays Solo ...
Continue ReadingAt the Corner: Ran Blake / Sara Serpa / Christine Correa
by C. Michael Bailey
The common element between Sara Serpa's Aurora and Christine Correa's Down Here Below is obviously pianist Ran Blake. Enigmatic to a fault, Blake has made a potent name for himself among improvised music enthusiasts. Blake is an intellectual amalgam of pianists Thelonious Monk and Martial Solal distilled to a dissonant essence. A long time professor at the New England Conservatory, Blake has taken many under his tutelage, specifically singers, beginning with Jeanne Lee on The Newest Sound ...
Continue ReadingRan Blake – Christine Correa: Down Here Below – Tribute to Abbey Lincoln Volume One
by AAJ Italy Staff
Per omaggiare Abbey Lincoln, Ran Blake e Christine Correa scelgono la via più lontana da quel modello, per l'asciuttezza (almeno nell'organico, ridotto all'osso), di contro all'epica declamatorietà dell'indimenticata musa della Freedom Now Suite roachiana, di cui è qui riproposto “Freedom Day" (in due versioni come del resto “Down Here Below" della stessa Abbey Lincoln e “Christmas Cheer" di R. B. Lynch). La scelta risulta in realtà del tutto in linea con la personalità interpretativa della dedicataria, vista la dimensione schiettamente ...
Continue ReadingRan Blake: Vilnius Noir
by AAJ Italy Staff
Il titolo e il tono dark della copertina farebbero pensare ad una messa nera nelle lande sperdute della Lituania. Anche buona parte della musica proposta da Ran Blake e David Fabris va nella direzione della parte più oscura dello spettro musicale, per poi riemergere con un finale a sorpresa che parte da “Desafinado" per arrivare a “Mood Indigo," passando per “My Cherie Amour". Non lasciatevi comunque ingannare dalla possibile frivolezza apparente di questi titoli, anche in questi brani il tono ...
Continue ReadingRan Blake and Christine Correa: Down Here Below
by Hrayr Attarian
Starting with the inimitable Jeanne Lee, pianist Ran Blake has been collaborating with adventurous vocalists for half a century. These are singers who are not satisfied by merely parroting the old repertoire in the same tried and true, but also musty and tired way. These are musicians whose vocal cords command close listening, as is the case with the Mumbai-born and New York-based Christine Correa. This Abbey Lincoln tribute, Down Here Below, is the third time Correa ...
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