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David Ake
Pianist and composer David Ake has worked alongside some of the world's most creative musicians. Among his recordings are the solo-piano CD In Between; The Dark, from the trio EEA; Bridges (w/ Ralph Alessi, Scott Colley, Ravi Coltrane, Peter Epstein, Mark Ferber), Humanities (w/ Alessi, Ferber, Drew Gress, Ben Monder), and, most recently, Slingshot, a collection of solo-piano tracks and duets with bassist Boris Kozlov.
In addition to his extensive performance credits, Ake is an award-winning musicologist and educator. He authored the books Jazz Cultures and Jazz Matters, and co-edited the essay collection Jazz/Not Jazz with Daniel Goldmark and Charles Hiroshi Garrett. In fall 2015 he was named professor and chair of the Department of Musicology at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. Prior to that appointment, Ake had chaired the Department of Music at Case Western Reserve University, and was a longtime faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno. He holds a Ph.D. in musicology and M.A. in ethnomusicology from UCLA, as well as degrees in jazz performance from the California Institute of the Arts and the University of Miami.
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David Ake: Humanities
by David A. Orthmann
The group that pianist/composer David Ake assembles for Humanities thrives on change and doesn't care all that much for boundaries, familiar stylistic references, or decorum. Distinctions between written material and improvisation, soloists and accompaniment, are subject to transformation, collapse, consolidation and mutation. Nothing stays on exactly the same course for very long. Featuring Ake, Ralph Alessi's trumpet, Ben Monder's guitar, Drew Gress' bass, and the drums and cymbals of Mark Ferber, the band offers a steady diet of shifts in ...
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by Dan Bilawsky
Pianist David Ake is a tough man to pin down. With Bridges (Posi-Tone, 2013) he took on the form of label outlier and pathfinder, breaking away from Posi-Tone's radio-friendly album format with a series of outward bound excursions; on Lake Effect (Posi-Tone, 2015) he offered a cooler alternative that proved ruminative in many of its pursuits; and through Humanities he delivers a penetrating program that roams wide without running or breaking free. He keeps us guessing, for sure, and that's ...
read moreDavid Ake: Lake Effect
by Dan Bilawsky
Pianist David Ake strikes a pensive pose on the back cover of Lake Effect, foreshadowing a good amount of the music that follows. With his previous album, Ake reveled in the opportunity to keep listener's guessing from song to song and moment to moment. It was a musical gambit that paid off handsomely, making Bridges (Posi-Tone, 2013) one of the stand-out releases of 2013. Here, Ake takes a step forward by taking a step back. Gone is the striking uncertainty ...
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