One of Ran’s favorite restaurants, Dalia’s in Brookline, closed in July. Here’s Ran on the final night with the owner, Gina…

…fortunately there are still plenty of dining options available. Here Ran enjoys fine Turkish cuisine at Saray in Boston with the owner Mesut and friends Ilona Tipp and Peter Kenagy.

A short bootleg of a 1963 radio performance with Jeanne Lee has surfaced on internet downloading sites. Songs include “Sermonette,” “Round About It,” “One Mint Julep” and “Lonely Woman.” Ran says an unidentified solo piece is an original called “The Outcast.”

If you’re savvy about downloading, you can hear it by going to this link, clicking on “regular download,” waiting 60 seconds, and then converting the FLAC files to MP3 or WAV.

As the poster above suggests, Ran will celebrate his 75th birthday with a concert in his honor Monday, September 20 at the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall.

The show will feature musical performances, spoken tributes, and archival audio and video.

Performers will include NEC faculty members Bruce Brubaker, Frank Carlberg, Dominique Eade, Cecil McBee, Hankus Netsky, and Ken Schaphorst, as well as alumni Christine Correa, Alonzo Harris and Sara Serpa.

If you would like to contribute a message of congratulations or appreciation for a scrapbook that will be presented to Ran, please e-mail Aaron Hartley at tromboneman03@yahoo.com.

The concert is free and it starts at 8 p.m. Read more about it here.

A blog called Lucid Culture describes Out of the Shadows, Ran’s new duet album with vocalist Christine Correa as “intense and cerebral yet unselfconsciously raw and soulful.” Read the full review here.

On the BBC Music Magazine’s website, Neil McKim called the recent rerelease of Duo En Noir, Ran’s live duo album with trumpeter Enrico Rava, “as suspenseful as any noir thriller, with eerie and brooding takes on film tunes as well as standards.” Read the full review here.

As always, you can reach Ran directly at ran@ranblake.com, and you can read back issues here.

To learn more about studying at NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation Department, visit the department’s website or contact Department Chairperson Hankus Netsky.

We’ll see you in August.
–Steve

Vol. 6, No. 7