Ran’s August 28 gig at the Vernissage restaurant in Brookline went well. The show was sold out and the crowd enjoyed two sets from Ran and his band, which included David “Knife” Fabris (guitar), Joel Yennior (trombone), and Jon Hazilla (percussion), as well as vocalist Dominique Eade on several songs.

Highlights included Ran’s first public performances of an original called “Cry Wolf” and Massimo Sammi’s “Ice Cream and Tears, Please.” Knife’s solo on “Driftwood” also was especially well received. You can download the program by clicking here.

The day before the show, the Boston Herald ran a feature on Ran and his neighborhood headlined “After all these years, jazz giant Ran Blake plans hometown gig.” The story featured the above photo, taken by Mike Adaskaveg.

Here’s an impressionistic photo of the show, taken by Ilona Tipp.

Ran is playing a solo show Friday, September 26 as part of an NEC alumni event at the Third Street Settlement Music School in New York City.

Ran has titled the show “Conservatory Noir,” and he will play two sets. The program will include a tribute to NEC alumni and a musical recreation of seven important events of Ran’s life. Afterward, there will be a Q&A session.

The school is at 235 East 11th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Avenues). The 7:30 p.m. show at the Anna-Maria Kellen Auditorium is free and open to the public but to attend you need to make a reservation by contacting NEC’s Cheryl Weber at cweber@
newenglandconservatory.edu.

Further down the road, Ran will perform October 2 at a tribute concert at NEC’s Jordan Hall honoring Jimmy Giuffre, a renowned composer, arranger and saxophonist who died last April. The show, which is free, starts at 8 p.m.

A highlight of Ran’s month was seeing Gunther Schuller honored with the President’s Award September 5 at the Berklee College of Music. Gunther also delivered a lecture and commented on several recordings that were played, including “Moon Dreams” (associated with Miles Davis) and his own “Seven Studies of Paul Klee.”

Ran is also excited to see the George Russell Living Time Orchestra this Saturday night at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.

Thanks for reading. You can reach Ran directly at ran@ranblake.com, and you can read back issues here.

We’ll see you in October.
–Steve
Vol. 4, No.9