Michael Blake (musician)

Michael Blake (born May 19, 1964) is a Canadian born American saxophonist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He formed the bands Blake Tartare, Hellbent, Red Hook Soul and co-lead Slow Poke. Michael has performed with 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, Ray Lamontagne, Ricki Lee Jones, Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, Tricky, Catherine Russell and Pinetop Perkins.
Early life.
Blake was born in Montreal, Canada. His mother Merle Stevens was a professional dancer when she met his father Patrick Blake in Montreal where he worked at the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. In 1969 his father was hired by the San Francisco Opera and moved his family to California. After divorcing in 1973 they resettled in Vancouver, Canada where Blake received music lessons on violin and piano. He started on the clarinet at the age of 14 and picked up the tenor saxophone in High School after reading the biography Chasin' the Trane about saxophonist John Coltrane. In 1982 upon graduating Vancouver Technical High School, Michael received the Music Award. From 1982–1984 Blake attended the Vancouver Community College Music Program where he studied saxophone and clarinet with David Branter. In 1983 he received a scholarship from his college to attend the Courtney Music Camp.
Michael began his professional career in Vancouver, performing with local musicians Hugh Fraser, Phil Dwyer, Claude Ranger, John Korsrud, Bob Murphy, Jim Chivers, Ross Taggart, and Kate Hammett-Vaughan. From 1984–1985 he attended summer jazz workshops at The Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, studying saxophone with Steve Coleman and David Liebman. In 1986 Michael received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to study in New York City 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. Michael toured, recorded, and performed with the band from 1990–1999. He appeared on the albums "Live in Berlin Vol 1 & 2" and "Queen of All Ears". Blake also played saxophone and clarinet on Lurie's TV series "Fishing with John" and film scores for "Get Shorty", "Excess Baggage", and "Box of Moonlight". He played a solo over the credits of the "Get Shorty" soundtrack which was nominated for a Grammy Award.
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. The collective presented original compositions at concerts in Greenwich Village, New York. Joining members Ben Allison, Frank Kimbrough, Ron Horton, and Ted Nash the collective also formed the Herbie Nichols Project devoted to the music of pianist 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, received critical acclaim. "Kingdom of Champa" was engineered by Scott Harding and produced by Teo Macero.
In 1997 Blake formed a band with David Tronzo, Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen called Slow Poke. Between 1997–2001 Slow Poke recorded two albums: "Slow Poke at Home"(1998) and "Redemption" (1999) and toured in Canada, the US, and Europe.
2000s.
In 2001 Michael received Chamber Music America's: New Jazz Works Grant. The grant, provided by the Doris Duke Foundation, commissioned a suite of compositions inspired by Blake's fascination with 1970's TV show themes. 
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" and used selections from "Elevated" for their station ID bumpers.
In 2002 Michael assembled a band with Danish musicians Kresten Osgood, Soren Kjaergaard, and Jonas Westergaard in New York where they recorded their self produced album "Blake Tartare" (2002). They were signed to the Danish jazz label Stunt Music for which they recorded two more albums. "More Like Us" included Danish singer/songwriter Maria Laurette-Friss. "The World Awakes", (2008) a tribute to saxophonist Eli 'Lucky' Thompson, was produced by Danish Radio impresario Ib Skovgaard. Blake toured in Denmark in 2002 with Osgood's organ-driven band, Hammond Rens. With organist Lonnie Smith, the live album "Hammond Rens" was released by Ilk Music in 2002. 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.
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 that with music by Evan Lurie and Doug Wieselman. From 2004–2010 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.
In 2007 Michael began a series of Canadian-themed concept albums for the label Songlines in Vancouver. His first album "Amor de Cosmos" was dedicated to his grandfather, who died at the age of 101.
Blake served as Musical Director for the Neil Sedaka '50 Years of Hits' Celebration at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall on October 26th, 2007. Blake 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.
In 2008 Michael joined the band of Enrico Rava, substituting for saxophonist Mark Turner on Rava's promotional tour for "New York Stories" (ECM).
2010s.
Michael was on faculty at Siena Jazz Summer Workshop in Italy from 2009–2014. He performed in faculty concerts with Enrico Rava, Greg Osby, Kenny Werner, Antonio Sánchez, Eric Harland and Ben Perowsky.
For his second album on Songlines, "In the Grand Scheme of Things" (2012) Michael debuted the Variety Hour, a quartet with Dylan Van der Schyff, JP Carter and Chris Gestrin. The Variety Hour toured in Canada and was the closing act at the 2013 Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
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 the album "Tiddy Boom" (2014) for Sunnyside.
In 2014 Blake wrote an analysis of his solo from the title track of Tiddy Boom for "Downbeat".
In 2015 Michael recorded "Red Hook Soul" (2016) for Ropeadope with Tony Scherr, Erik Deutsch, Ari Blotnick, Moses Patrou and Tim Lüntzel.
Beginning in 2015, Blake joined the faculty of Jerry Granelli's Creative Music Workshop in Halifax, Canada. Four years later he formed the New Canadian Art Quartet with Jerry Granelli, Peggy Lee, and Chris Gestrin. 
In 2017 Michael performed with the Charlie Hunter Trio on three US Tours and recorded Hunter's original music with drummer George Sluppick in Memphis, Tennessee. Charlie Hunter Trio, "Live at the Memphis Music Mansion" is being released in 2021. 
Starting in 2018 Blake began writing profiles on musicians (Jay Rodrigues, Marcus Rojas, Gina Leishman) published on All About Jazz.
In autumn of 2020 Michael recorded "Dance of the Mystic Bliss" for strings, guitar and percussion. The album was mixed by Scott Harding and features Brazilian percussionists Mauro Refosco and Rogerio Bocatto.
Awards and honors.
Honorable mentions.
"Drift" (1999) was chosen as Album of the Year by the German music magazine "Jazzthing". 
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
His 2014 album "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.
Blake's third album for Songlines, 2016's "Fulfillment" was selected Album of the Year by "Bird is the Worm". The album was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and addresses the Komagata Maru incident.