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August 28 -- Small group show at Vernissage, a Russian restaurant at 1627 Beacon Street in Brookline that recently starting hosting live jazz. Ran will be joined by David "Knife" Fabris (guitar) and Joel Yennior (trombone). The show starts at 8 p.m., and the cover charge is $20. Dinner and a full bar are also available. Call (617) 566-3340 for more information.
September 26 -- Ran will perform solo at an NEC alumni event at the Third Street Settlement Music School in New York City. The school is at 235 East 11th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Avenues), and the show will be open to the general public. We'll have more info as soon as it becomes available.
October 2 -- Ran will play at a tribute concert at NEC honoring Jimmy Giuffre, a renowned composer, arranger and saxophone and clarinet player who died last April.
Other News
Photography Book -- Ran is among 60 musician/educators featured in a new book, Teaching Musicians: A Photographer's View, by Diane Griliches.
The photo of Ran shows him giving a lesson to a trumpeter. Accompanying text highlights his approach to teaching, noting that "he eschews musical notation ... he wants his students to concentrate on listening, and one course is called 'earobics'."
Many of the book's subjects are NEC alumni and current or former NEC staff, including Frank Battisti, Dorothy DeLay, Dominique Eade, Anne Hobson Pilot, Joe Maneri, Cecil McBee, Bob Moses, Hankus Netsky, Danilo Perez, Kenneth Radnofsky, Roger Voisin, and Ben Zander. Other notable subjects include Yo-Yo Ma, Jimmy Heath, Bobby McFerrin and Ravi Shankar.
Teaching Musicians is available at bookstores and from Amazon and Bunker Hill Publishing.
Live Download -- Ran's July 2006 performance at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris is now available for download from Sans Bruit, a new company that offers live jazz recordings on-line. Sans Bruit is the brainchild of Stephane Oskeritzian, a concert promoter and longtime friend of Ran's.
Ran's July 7 concert closed a four-day jazz festival. He performed an eight-part suite titled "Cinema Chatelet" that he described it as a soundtrack to an imaginary film directed by his heroes of cinema. The track list follows:
Part I: Noir (4:10)
Part II: All that is tied (2:08)
Part III: Shostakovich 13 (1:48)
Part IV: The Monk family (1:02)
Part V: New York (6:44)
Part VI: Paris (4:30)
Part VII: Memphis (2:36)
Part VIII: Desafinado 3:06
Encore (6:42)
The download is in the MP3 format and costs 5 euros (about $7.75). You can also download free artwork from the website.
Album News #1 -- If you've ever wondered what Ran's music would sound like when performed by a symphonic ensemble, your wait is over. An album released in April by the MIT Wind Ensemble, titled Solo Eclipse, includes two of Ran's compositions: "Impresario of Death" and "Ghosts of Cimetiere de Pere Lachaise."
The compositions (both of which originally appeared on Something to Live For), were transcribed for chamber wind ensemble by Kenneth Amis, a composer and tuba player for the Empire Brass Quintet. They were commissioned by MIT and first performed by the NEC Wind Ensemble (conducted by Charles Peltz) as a surprise gift for Ran's 70th birthday concert in Jordan Hall in 2005.
Solo Eclipse also includes compositions by Amis (the three-movement "Concerto for Tuba") and Argentinean composer and pianist Guillermo Klein ("Solar Return Suite," featuring tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry).
The album is available from Amazon, Albany Records, Amis Musical Circle and ArkivMusic.
Album News #2 -- In January Ran finished recording his next album, a solo set of interpretations of songs associated with his favorite vocalists.
Jonah Kraut, Ran's longtime friend and former assistant at NEC, is producing the album, which will be released early next year on Tompkins Square Records. Jonah says the recording has a very relaxed, emotive and contemplative feel.
Tentatively titled "Driftwoods," the album will likely feature tracks that pay tribute to Chris Connor, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Hank Williams. It also will include "Dancing in the Dark" as a tribute to Dorothy Wallace, a patron of the arts and a supporter of Ran's music who died in 2001. Ran has performed this song often in recent years but has never recorded it.
Album News #3 -- In February Ran wrapped up an album of piano/vocal duets with longtime friend (and NEC colleague) Dominique Eade.
The pair actually started the project in 2004, recording several cuts. After the New Year they resumed work on the album, which was recorded at Rear Window studio in Brookline (where All That Is Tied was recorded).
The album is expected to include a mix of Dominique and Ran's originals; standards such as "Old Devil Moon" and "The Thrill is Gone"; and some lesser known songs, such as Quincy Jones' "Pawnbroker" and Stan Kenton's "Falling."
No word yet on label info or a release date.
European Tour -- Ran and guitarist David "Knife" Fabris returned in late December from a successful European tour that included performances in France, Germany and Italy. Highlights included the Casa Jazz show in Rome, which nearly 400 people attended, and saxophonist Ricky Ford joining Ran onstage in Tours. Ran also enjoyed seeing many old friends. Check out the December issue of Ran's newsletter for photos from the tour.
*Newsletter Archive: 2008 -- June,
May,
April,
March,
February,
January
2007 --
December,
November,
October,
September,
August,
July,
June,
May,
April,
March,
February,
January
2006 -- December, November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April
Archived news is kept here.
Ran has performed at major jazz festivals, concert halls, jazz clubs, colleges and universities
throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, South America, and Mexico.
Appearances include Monterey Festival, Antibes Music Festival, Nancy
Jazz Festival, Third Stream Festival, Praxis Festival, Grenoble Jazz
Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Ottawa jazz Festival, Edmonton Jazz
Festival, Jazz and Blues Festival, Museum of Modern Art, Du Maurier
International Jazz festival.
Additional appearances on numerous radio and television programs.
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- MacArthur
Foundation Grant 1988
- Boston
Music Award 1988
- Guggenheim
Fellowship in Music Composition 1988
- Massachusetts
Council of the Arts 1987
- Guggenheim
Fellowship in Music Composition 1982
- Massachusetts
Artists Foundation Fellowship in Music Composition 1982
- Academie
Du Jazz: Prix Billie Holiday 1980
- RCA
Album First Prize in Germany 1963
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The
'official' Ran Blake biography by writer Scott
Menhinick is available by selecting one of the following selections
below: |
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for printing) |
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(better
for viewing on the web) |
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| B.A.
Bard College |
| Studies
at School of Jazz, Lenox, MA |
Composition
and improvisation studies with Ray Cassarino, Willis Lawrence
James,
Oscar Peterson, Bill Russo, Gunther Schuller, Mal Waldron, and
Mary Lou Williams |
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| A
compilation of Ran's reviews is available by selecting one of
the following selections: |
pdf |
(better
for printing) |
| html |
(better
for viewing on the web) |
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Sonic
Temples
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"Ran
Blake is so hip it hurts. At 66, he is still a pianist who
can
make you laugh at his wry humor one second and wring a tear
the next. His playing and composing is so richly idiosyncratic
and his interplay with the Schuller brothers - bassist Ed and
drummer George - so varied that Sonic Temples could have
been recorded at any time in the last 45 years."
-
James Hale, Down
Beat
(January 2002)
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"This
is the sound of lives fully connected and committed. Everything
matters and nothing is taken for granted - what a fine way to
make music."
-Signal
To Noise: The Journal of Improvised & Experimental Music
(Winter 2002)
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Top
10 Jazz Recordings of 2001 (#8)
"...indispensable...Blake in effect takes [jazz standards]
apart and puts them back together in exotic and alluring ways.
The standard tunes, therefore, simply become vehicles for tracing
the arcane and fantastically eccentric ways in which Blake thinks."
-Howard Reich, Chicago
Tribune
(December 11, 2001)
Also
carried on the AP/Knight Ridder wire to other papers
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"Sonic
Temples is a profusely elegant affair that shines forth with
the reverence of a coveted museum piece. Strongly recommended."
-AllAboutJazz.com
(November 2001)
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"Original
voices are so hard to come by in jazz pianism that a two-CD
set such as this amounts to a signal event. To say that [Ran
Blake] alters the harmonies of 'Black Coffee' or brings interesting
colors to 'Stormy Weather' would be like contending that Michaelangelo
did a nice touch-up job on the Sistine Chapel."
-Howard
Reich, LA Times
(November 25, 2001)
Kevin
Whitehead's review on 'Fresh Air with Terry Gross,' 10/17/01
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"4
1/2 stars. Ran Blake has never been so powerful or so quiet,
the restraint and space here is almost mystical. This is in
many ways just the next chapter in an already wildly fruitful
and profound career...it is also a reinvention of the artist
in a portrait of himself."
-All
Music Guide
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- Jazz
Lives, Michael Ullman
- Il
Jazz Degli Anni ’70, Gianni Gualberto
- The
Encyclopedia of Jazz, Leonard Feather
- Who’s
Who in America
- Who’s
Who in the World
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