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Dan Blake

Most artists who record an album as enthusiastically reviewed as The Aquarian Suite (2012), saxophonist Dan Blake’s scintillating up-to-the-minute take on postbop – “one of the most ridiculously satisfying discs we’ve heard in some time,” crowed the Boston Phoenix – would be eager to follow it up with something in the same vein. And that’s just what he’s done with The Digging (Sunnyside Records, 2016), a trio foray that features Eric Harland on drums.

But for the Brooklyn artist, whose ridiculously wide-ranging career has included significant work with great artists as different as avant guru Anthony Braxton and Grammy-winning jazz-pop star Esperanza Spalding, there are compelling reasons to also go in other directions.

The Boston Globe has said Blake “regards tradition as a welcoming playground best approached with a sense of wonder and adventure.” A frequent collaborator in this playground is the protean Argentine pianist Leo Genovese, whose recording Seeds (Palmetto) features Blake, who the New York Times called a “virtuoso.”

One of those reasons is his burgeoning relationship with the Mivos Quartet, a leading new music chamber group for which he was commissioned to composer a new work by the Jerome Fund for New Music, with support from New Music USA’s Composer Assistance Program. The project saw its release at New York’s 2016 “Winter Jazzfest” and is now a feature-length DVD on the Infrequent Seams label. His work with Braxton led to an invitation for Blake to compose for the maestro’s “Tricentric Orchestra”. Blake has also received commissions to compose for recorderist Terri Hron, the Paris-based Spring Roll Quartet, the Dr. Faustus new music series, and the North/South Consonance Ensemble. His works have also been performed by such standout new music groups as the Cygnus Ensemble, the Kenners, Duo Diorama and redfish bluefish ensemble.

Beyond specific projects, Blake is simply an artist who lives for all manner of collaborations, as a composer as well as a tenor and soprano saxophonist. “That’s the single most important thing to me,” he said. “When you work with people, you inhabit some sort of world together, this feeling of connection. It’s not about imposing an aesthetic ideal. Music represents the value of those relationships. It makes a powerful ethical statement.”

In Blake’s world, those collaborations can involve departed as well as living artists, as witness his ongoing relationship with onetime teacher Steve Lacy via his solo saxophone performances and hours of practicing long tones, scale patterns, circular breathing and multiphonics. “Lacy said playing solo was extremely important, but not to do it too much or I’d get too much into my own world. My approach involves just exploding my instrument, waiting for that point where an accident occurs, whether it’s a squeak or a slip, and trying to do it again. I find that area of the instrument and exploit it through exploration.”

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5
Album Review

Alex Weiss: Most Don't Have Enough

Read "Most Don't Have Enough" reviewed by Robert Middleton


This album is really special. It doesn't sound like anything else and every song is engaging and interesting. The titles of the songs are also fascinating. Even the collage cover is great and seems to reflect the music. Tenor saxophonist Alex Weiss started writing Most Don't Have Enough during the pandemic and went deep into writing and practicing. Much of the inspiration came from Chris Speed, as Weiss is a big fan of his writing and his tone. ...

3
Album Review

Dan Blake: Da Fé

Read "Da Fé" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


A lot of personal factors go into saxophonist Dan Blake's music on this CD, such as his concerns about the environment, his Buddhist teachings and his social activism. What comes out of this is a style of electro-acoustic jazz which is alternately meditative and fiery. The basic music here was performed in the studio by a quartet of Blake on saxophone, Carmen Staaf on piano, Dmitry Ishenko on bass and Jeff Williams on drums. The tunes were then ...

1
Album Review

Dan Blake: Da Fé

Read "Da Fé" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


It's comforting to know that saxophonist Dan Blake hasn't taken Thoreau's inconvenient truth that “most men lead lives of quiet desperation" to heart. Instead, as his Da Fé (translated: of faith) and his apprenticeships with Anthony Braxton} and {{Julian Lage prove succinctly, Blake intends to bring the music, and the consciousness of our fragility within it, to the fore, in hopes the listener can shake the malaise too and pick up the call for action. Blake escorts his ...

4
Album Review

Dan Blake: Da Fé

Read "Da Fé" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Saxophonist-composer Dan Blake's Da Fé ("of faith"), a meditation on our world in crisis, may have taken, as a starting point, the lyrics to Lou Reed's “Busload Of Faith" from the über-cynical New York (Sire, 1989) recording, “You can depend on cruelty / crudity of thought and sound / You can depend on the worst always happening / you need a busload of faith to get by." What with global warming, income disparity, hunger, and homelessness, the gentle folk of ...

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Performance / Tour

Saxophonist/Composer Dan Blake Presents The World Premiere Of His New Work, "The Dust Moves" - For String Quartet, Saxophone & Animation

Saxophonist/Composer Dan Blake Presents The World Premiere Of His New Work, "The Dust Moves" - For String Quartet, Saxophone & Animation

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Saxophonist and composer Dan Blake “regards tradition as a welcoming playground best approached with a sense of wonder and adventure." —Andy Gilbert, The Boston Globe “He will do justice to any musical situation." —Danilo Pérez “One of the most adventurous and diverse young players I have heard in some time" —Dave Liebman “Thank you Daniel Blake for un-packaging the avant-garde gracefully and soulfully." —Esperanza Spalding Saxophonist/Composer DAN BLAKE Presents The World Premiere of His New Work ...

79

Performance / Tour

Saxophonist Dan Blake On Tour in Support of The Aquarian Suite

Saxophonist Dan Blake On Tour in Support of The Aquarian Suite

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Saxophonist/Composer Dan Blake On Tour In Support of his Brooklyn Jazz Underground Recording The Aquarian Suite December 5 @ Chris' Jazz Café, Philadelphia, PA December 6 @ Twins Jazz, Washington, D.C. December 7 @ The Cornelia Street Café, NYC December 9-10 @ Wally's Café, Boston, MA, The Aquarian Suite features: Dan Blake (saxophone, compositions), Jason Palmer (trumpet), Jorge Roeder (bass) + Richie Barshay (drums, percussion) “One of the most adventurous and diverse young players I have heard in some time"—Dave ...

96

Recording

Dan Blake - Aquarian Suite (2011)

Dan Blake - Aquarian Suite (2011)

Source: Something Else!

When taking in Julian Lage's uniquely poetic Gladwell earlier this year, I sensed something uncommonly creative about Lage's saxophonist, Dan Blake, and his ability to blend in flawlessly with a cello and play music that reconciled jazz and folk and classical music. He even contributed music that fit perfectly into this eclectic formula, with “However." But, as Blake's own burgeoning career as a leader makes clear, my senses hadn't been failing me. Last week, Blake followed up on his debut ...

100

Recording

BJURecords To Release "The Aquarian Suite" from Saxophonist/Composer Dan Blake

BJURecords To Release "The Aquarian Suite" from Saxophonist/Composer Dan Blake

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Featuring: Dan Blake (saxophone, compositions), Jason Palmer (trumpet), Jorge Roeder (bass) + Richie Barshay (drums, percussion) The Aquarian Suite CD Release Celebrations: December 5 @ Chris' Jazz Café, Philadelphia, PA December 6 @ Twins Jazz, Washington, D.C. December 7 @ The Cornelia Street Café, NYC December 9-10 @ Wally's Café, Boston, MA “He will do justice to any musical situation." —Danilo Pérez “The narrative that permeates all of the compositions so beautifully embodies this deep sense of imagination, a brilliantly ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Most Don't Have Enough

ears&eyes Records
2023

buy

Da Fé

Sunnyside Records
2021

buy

Cry of the East

From: Da Fé
By Dan Blake

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