Michael Blake: Dance of the Mystic Bliss

This is saxophonist Michael Blake's new group, Chroma Nova, which contains guitar, violin, cello, bass and two Brazilian percussionists. They play a set of compositions, inspired by Blake's late mother, dancer Merle Blake, which rely on fluid rhythms and textures taken in many different directions.

Blake is often the main solo voice here but he also blends in with the other instruments to create all kinds of intriguing sonic fabrics. For example, "Topanga Burns" starts with a stately clockwork pattern from Blake's soprano sax and Christopher Hoffman's cello. The music then changes into a blast of violin, hand percussion and fuzz guitar before Blake's soprano comes swirling back into the foreground. "Prune Pluck Pangloss" begins with flute and steely bowed strings before pizzicato violin and the intricate patterns of percussionists Mauro Refosco and Rogerio Boccato bring in a tenser mood. Blake's tenor saxophone then dominates with a broadly rhapsodic solo over Guilherme Monteiro's electric guitar chords.

Blake's comfort within the group shows in the way he navigates all the twists and angles of these compositions. His flute sings brightly over the droning strings and formal dance patterns of "The Meadows" while his tenor sax dances effortlessly over a tricky mesh of Latin rhythms and string accents on "Little Demons." On "Weeds" he plays tenor sax snugly over a menacing up-and-down rhythm vamp before Hoffman's digging cello and Monterio's heavy, scouring rock guitar take over. On the closing track "Cleopatra" Blake blows sorrowful soprano sax into a thick noirish fog of cavernous sound.

In the end, Blake brings Latin, Middle Eastern, and other elements together here into fresh compositions with a flair for the unusual. Chroma Nova has the lightness and flexibility of a dance troupe and they really make the leader's music come to life. This is an album one can listen to many times and always hear something new.

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