Michael Blake (musician)
Michael Blake (born May 19, 1964) is a Canadian-born American saxophonist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. Over the course of his career he formed the bands Blake Tartare, Hellbent, Mr Carefree, Elevated Quartet, The Eulipion Orchestra, The Variety Hour, Red Hook Soul, Blake & Brass XL, Chroma Nova and co-lead the groups Made in China and Slow Poke. As a sideman Michael has performed with Charlie Hunter, The Lounge Lizards, Steven Bernstein/Henry Butler and the Hot 9, Ben Allison, Nicole Mitchell, Hamid Drake, Oliver Lake Big Band, Dafnis Prieto Big Band, Ricki Lee Jones and Ray  LaMontagne. Early life. Michael Blake was born in Montreal, Canada. His mother Merle Stevens was a professional dancer in Montreal when she met his father Francis Patrick Blake. Michael's father moved the family to Vancouver and Toronto before taking a Public Relations job with the San Francisco Opera. In 1973, after his parents divorced, they resettled in Vancouver, Canada, where Michael briefly took lessons on violin and piano. At the age of 14, around the same time his older brother started playing alto saxophone, he picked up the clarinet. Michael started on the tenor saxophone in High School after  reading the biography Chasin' the Trane about saxophonist John Coltrane. From 1982 to 1984 Blake attended the Vancouver Community College Jazz and Commercial Music Program where he studied saxophone and clarinet with David Branter. After finishing the program, Blake studied privately with saxophonist Patric Caird. From 1984 to 1985 he attended summer jazz workshops at The Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, studying saxophone with Steve Coleman and David Liebman. Michael began his professional career in Vancouver, performing with local jazz musicians Hugh Fraser, Phil Dwyer, John Korsrud, Jim Chivers and Kate Hammett-Vaughan. He also worked with west coast  R&B acts, The Powder Blues Band and Rocket Norton. In 1986 Michael received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to live in New York City where he would study saxophone and theory with David Liebman. Career. 1990s. In the fall of 1989 Blake started working with John Lurie and The Lounge Lizards, and for that band he began playing soprano saxophone.<ref name="Jazz/Pop Review"></ref> Michael toured, recorded, and performed with the band until 1999. He appeared on the albums "Live in Berlin Vol 1 & 2" and "Queen of All Ears" and is featured in the Lounge  Lizards concert film, "John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards Live in Berlin 1991". Blake also played saxophone and clarinet on Lurie's TV series "Fishing with John" and film scores for "Get Shorty" and "Excess Baggage". As well as his affiliation with The Lounge Lizards, Michael worked as a sideman in the 1990s with Jack McDuff, Charlie Persip, Gil Evans Orchestra, and singer Henry Fiol. He became a composer in residence for the Jazz Composers Collective in 1995 and joined the Herbie Nichols Project, a repertoire ensemble devoted to the music of pianist/composer Herbie Nichols. In 1996 Michael signed  with Intuition Music and released two albums. His debut album "Kingdom of Champa" (1997), a concept album about Vietnam, was engineered by Scott Harding and produced by Teo Macero. He reassembled the team of Macero and Harding to produce and mix his second release "Drift". In 1997 Blake formed a band with David Tronzo, Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen called Slow Poke. Between 1997 and 2001 Slow Poke recorded "Slow Poke at Home" and "Redemption" , toured in Canada and Europe. "Slow Poke at Home" was re-released in 2005 on Palmetto Records with two additional bonus tracks. 2000s. Blake recorded  and released "Elevated" in 2002 on Knitting Factory Records. For their 2001–2002 season Sundance TV hired Blake to write the theme for their TV series "Conversations in World Cinema" for which he rerecorded several themes from "Elevated". In 2002 Michael recorded "Blake Tartare" with Danish musicians Kresten Osgood, Soren Kjaergaard, and Jonas Westergaard. The following year he signed with the Danish jazz label Stunt Music to record "More Like Us" featuring singer/songwriter Maria Laurette-Friss and "The World Awakes" (2008), a tribute to saxophonist Eli 'Lucky' Thompson. Under Kresten Osgood's leadership, Blake toured Denmark in 2002 and recorded  a live album, "Hammond Rens" featuring organist Lonnie Smith. Blake and Osgood reunited in New York City in 2008 to record "Control This" for Clean Feed Records. This was the only album on which he plays alto saxophone. In 2003 the Canadian composer and bandleader John Korsrud commissioned Michael to compose new works for his Hard Rubber Orchestra. Blake subsequently presented his own big band called The Eulipion Orchestra during his artist-in-residence at the Jazz Standard in NYC. The orchestra featured NYC musicians described by NY Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff as, "from all over the map". After  winning the ear of the Portuguese avant-garde label Clean Feed Records Michael recorded "Right Before Your Very Ears" in 2005. His first trio album with bassist Ben Allison and drummer Jeff Ballard is a balancing act of both free jazz and original compositions. Blake played soprano saxophone for the theme to "The Backyardigans", a children's TV program produced by Nick Jr. with music by Evan Lurie and Doug Wieselman. From 2004 to 2010 he performed with members of The Lounge Lizards on many "Backyardigans" episodes and composed the underscore for six episodes. Michael assembled the band Hellbent in  2006 with Calvin G Weston, Steven Bernstein, and Marcus Rojas. Violinist Charlie Burnham also performed with the group. Blake released the live album "Hellbent" in 2007. From 2007 to 2016 Michael began recording a trilogy of Canadian-themed concept albums for the Vancouver-based label Songlines. Collaborating with a new generation of musicians including Brad Turner, Chris Gestrin, Dylan van der Schyff and JP Carter. His first album "Amor de Cosmos" was dedicated to his grandfather, who died at the age of 101. 2012's "In the Grand Scheme of Things" makes reference to several of the saxophonists personal experiences , including the birth of his daughter Iris and his brothers wedding in Zambia. "Fulfillment" is about the ill-fated Komagata Maru incident in which Blake's great grand uncle Henry Herbert Stevens played a role. Created as a work of atonement, the album includes guest performances by the Vancouver born tabla player Neelamjit Dhilon and guitarist Aram Bajakian. Blake served as musical director for the Neil Sedaka '50 Years of Hits' Celebration at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall on October 26, 2007. The event was a fundraiser for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Michael performed on saxophone and conducted  the house band, backing up Sedaka and other artists who had hits by Sedaka including Connie Francis, The Captain and Tennille and Natalie Cole. During the summer of 2008 Michael joined the band of Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava on his promotional tour for "New York Stories" (ECM Records). He was a last minute replacement for saxophonist Mark Turner after he suffered a hand injury. In 2009, The Michael Blake Quartet, including bassist Ben Allison, guitarist Steve Cardenas and drummer Rudy Royston, were a regular at City Winery's Wine & Jazz series. 2010s. Michael was on faculty at Siena Jazz Summer  Workshop in Italy from 2009 to 2014. His role there included teaching ensembles, saxophone masterclasses and directing student recitals. He also performed in faculty concerts with colleagues including, Enrico Rava, Greg Osby, Kenny Werner, Steve Cardenas, Antonio Sánchez, Eric Harland and Ben Perowsky. In 2013 Michael was funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to write "Contrasts in Individualism: The Innovations of Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young". He recorded the music with Ben Allison, Frank Kimbrough and Rudy Royston and released "Tiddy Boom" the following year on Sunnyside Records. Blake wrote an analysis of his solo from the title track  for DownBeat Magazine's "Woodshed Department". In 2015 Michael recorded "Red Hook Soul" (2016) for Ropeadope with Tony Scherr, Erik Deutsch, Ari Blotnick, Moses Patrou and Tim Lüntzel. From 2015 to 2019 Michael was on faculty at Jerry Granelli's Creative Music Workshop in Halifax, Canada. In 2019 Granelli arranged a residency and recording session with Blake, cellist Peggy Lee, and pianist Chris Gestrin at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. In 2016 Blake toured in Italy and Sardinia with his Tiddy Boom Quartet and performed at the historic Sesc Pompéia in São Paulo. Throughout 2017 Michael performed with the  Charlie Hunter Trio and recorded "Live at the Memphis Music Mansion" with drummer George Sluppick. Starting in 2018 Blake began writing profiles on musicians (Jay Rodrigues, Marcus Rojas, Gina Leishman) published on All About Jazz. 2020s. In late 2020 Michael recorded an original set of music for a new project called Chroma Nova. The still unreleased album, "Dance of the Mystic Bliss" was mixed by Scott Harding and features Brazilian percussionists Mauro Refosco and Rogerio Bocatto. Blake rejoined his Lounge Lizards colleagues in 2021 to record new music for Season 2 of John Lurie's TV Series Painting with John  on HBO. In early 2022 Michael recorded "Comboblulate" with Blake & Brass XL for Newvelle Records. He composed 7 new pieces for the album which features tuba players Marcus Rojas and Bob Stewart, trombonist Clark Gayton, trumpeter Steven Bernstein and drummer Allan Mednard. Honorable mentions. "Drift" was selected as 1999's Album of the Year by Germany's Jazzthing Magazine Critics Poll. Michael was selected in 2002 by DownBeat magazine's Critics Poll (Talent Deserving Wider Recognition) Categories for Artist of the Year, Tenor Saxophonist and Soprano Saxophonist "Hellbent" was selected as Album of the Year in 2010 by Andrey Henkin  at All About Jazz "Tiddy Boom" was selected Album of the Year by DownBeat critic James Hale. The album is listed on several Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2014 lists including The Chicago Reader and Lament for a Straight Line. "Fulfillment" was selected Album of the Year by Bird is the Worm. "Red Hook Soul" received 2016's Best Album Cover Art from The New York City Jazz Record