Ran Blake: Difference between revisions

| name = Ran Blake

| image = Ran Blake.jpg

| landscape = yes

| caption = Ran Blake at [[Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society]], Half Moon Bay, California, June 14, 1987

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1935|04|20}}

| birth_place = [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], United States

| genre = [[Jazz]]

| years_active = 1950s–present

| website = {{URL|ranblake.com}}

'''Ran Blake''' (born April 20, 1935) is an American pianist, composer, and educator. He is known for his unique style that combines blues, [[Gospel music|gospel]], classical, and film noir influences into an innovative and dark jazz sound. His career spans over 40 recording credits on jazz albums along with more than 40 years of teaching jazz at the [[New England Conservatory of Music]], where he started the Department of [[Third Stream]] (now called the Department of Contemporary Improvisation) with [[Gunther Schuller]].

Beginning in the late 1950s, Blake was part of a duo with vocalist [[Jeanne Lee]].<ref name="Feather" /> Together they recorded his first album ''[[The Newest Sound Around]]'', which was released on [[RCA]] in 1962, and the next year they toured Europe together.<ref name="LarkinJazz">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who’sWho's Who of Jazz]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-580-8|page=50}}</ref> The album shows Blake's signature style beginning to develop, as they paid homage to Blake's early influences with a tribute to David Raksin's "[[Laura (1945 song)|Laura]]" and a reworking of the gospel standard, "The Church on Russell Street". Lee and Blake continued to play together throughout their careers and released another album in 1989 entitled ''You Stepped out of a Cloud''.

Blake met [[Gunther Schuller]] in a chance encounter at [[Atlantic Records]] in 1959.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> Recognizing Blake's talent, Schuller asked him to study at the School of Jazz in Lenox, Massachusetts. This was a summer program that existed from 1957 to 1960. It was unique in that it brought together many of the world's foremost jazz musicians of the time, including [[Dizzy Gillespie]] and [[William Russo (musician)|William Russo]], to teach students about jazz for an intensive three weeks.<ref>Fitzgerald, Michael (November 1, 1993) [http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Lenox/lenhome.htm "The Lenox School of Jazz"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029055227/http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Lenox/lenhome.htm |date=2013-10-29 }}. jazzdiscography.com</ref> Blake attended the School in 1959 and 1960. During his summers in Lenox, Blake began to develop his signature style. Schuller became a great friend and mentor to Blake throughout his career. Schuller organized the recording of ''The Newest Sound Around'' for Blake and Lee, and it was he who brought Blake to Atlantic Records, and later to the New England Conservatory.

Schuller coined the phrase "[[Third Stream]]"<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> in 1957 during a talk at [[Brandeis University]]. According to Schuller, Third Stream is "a new genre of music located about halfway between jazz and classical music". This new genre was created, in Schuller's opinion, to combat purists in both the jazz world and the classical world: to play Third Stream music one had to be proficient in both.{{cncitation needed|date=October 2022}}

When Schuller met Blake, two years after creating Third Stream, Blake's blend of influences, from free jazz and gospel music to classical composition and film noir soundtracks, appealed to him. When the two of them created the department at the NEC, it was natural that Blake would be the chairman. He remained in that position until 2005. He is a faculty member at the New England Conservatory.{{cncitation needed|date=October 2022}}

Blake has continued recording throughout his career as an educator and has amassed over forty recording credits on jazz albums. His first album with Jeanne Lee won the RCA Album First Prize in Germany, the 1980 Prix Billie Holiday, and is part of the Académie du Jazz.<ref name="nec">{{cite web |title=Ran Blake |url=https://necmusic.edu/faculty/ran-blake |website=necmusic.edu |access-date=September 10, 2018 |language=en |archive-date=September 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180910061047/https://necmusic.edu/faculty/ran-blake |url-status=live }}</ref>

After that album, he recorded primarily as a solo pianist, though many of his collaborative albums have received critical acclaim. In 1981, Blake recorded an album of songs by, or associated with, [[Duke Ellington]], entitled ''[[Duke Dreams]]'', which was awarded 4.5 stars by [[AllMusic]], and a five-star rating in Down Beat and the All Music Guide to Jazz.{{cncitation needed|date=October 2022}}

In 1986, he recorded ''[[Short Life of Barbara Monk]]'' with saxophonist [[Ricky Ford]], which was selected by the Penguin Guide to Jazz to be part of their Core Collection. He has collaborated with a number of other musicians, including [[Jaki Byard]], [[Houston Person]], [[Steve Lacy (saxophonist)|Steve Lacy]], [[Clifford Jordan]] and [[Christine Correa]].{{cncitation needed|date=October 2022}}

|[[Inner Circle Music]]

|[[No BusinessNoBusiness Records|No BusinessNoBusiness]]

[[Category:American male jazz pianists]]