SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
WINTER, 2022
VOLUME ELEVEN NUMBER ONE
RAPHAEL SAADIQ
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
JON BATISTE
(December 25-31)
MULGREW MILLER
(January 1- 7)
VALERIE COLEMAN
(January 8-14)
CHARNETT MOFFETT
(January 15-21)
AMYTHYST KIAH
(January 22-28)
JOHNATHAN BLAKE
(January 29--February 4)
MARCUS ROBERTS
(February 5-11)
IMMANUEL WILKINS
(February 12-18)
WYCLIFFE GORDON
(February 19-25)
FREDDIE KING
(February 26-March 4)
DOREEN KETCHENS
(March 5-11)
TERRY POLLARD
(March 12-18)
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnathan-blake-mn0000776998/biography
Johnathan Blake
(b. July 1, 1976)
Artist Biography by Matt Collar
An adept jazz drummer, Johnathan Blake has distinguished himself as both a first-call sideman and leader in his own right. Steeped in the Philly jazz traditions of players like Mickey Roker and Philly Joe Jones, Blake first emerged in the 2000s on the East Coast. Although primarily known for his work in the acoustic, post-bop style with outfits like the Mingus Big Band and veteran players like Tom Harrell and Kenny Barron, Blake has moved ably between straight-ahead and more genre-bending styles, contributing to projects by Jaleel Shaw, Omer Avital, Questlove, and others. A gifted composer, he has released his own inventive solo albums, including 2012's The Eleventh Hour and 2018's Trion.
Born in 1976 in Philadelphia, Blake grew up in a musical family the son of jazz violinist John Blake, Jr. He started playing drums at age ten, and by his teens was playing in the Lovett Hines Youth Ensemble, during which time he also began to compose. Also as a teenager, he played with saxophonist Robert Landham in a youth jazz ensemble at the noted Philadelphia institution Settlement Music School, where he rubbed shoulders with contemporaries like Jaleel Shaw, Christian McBride, and Joey DeFrancesco. At night, he also gained valuable experience sitting in at local clubs with veteran legends like Shirley Scott and Mickey Roker. After graduating from George Washington High School, Blake further honed his skills in the jazz program at William Paterson University. There, he studied with such well-regarded teacher/performers as Rufus Reid, John Riley, Steve Wilson, and Horace Arnold. In 2006 he earned an ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award, and the following year, he received his Masters from Rutgers University, where he focused on composition and studied with Ralph Bowen, Conrad Herwig, and Stanley Cowell.
While in school, he also continued to seek out professional opportunities, working with the Oliver Lake Big Band, Roy Hargrove, Russell Malone, and David Sanchez. As a member of the Mingus Big Band, Blake helped earned Grammy nominations for 2002's Tonight at Noon and 2005's I Am Three. He has also garnered the respect of jazz veterans, working with Randy Brecker, Joe Locke, and Ronnie Cuber, among others. He is also a longtime member of trumpeter Tom Harrell's group, having appeared on many of the trumpeter's albums, including 2007's Light On, 2009's Prana Dance, and 2011's Time of the Sun.
In 2012, Blake released his debut album as leader, The Eleventh Hour, which featured Harrell, as well as Robert Glasper, Jaleel Shaw, Ben Street, and others. More work followed with Harrell, including appearing on the trumpeter's albums like 2013's Colors of a Dream, 2015's First Impressions, and 2016's Some Gold, Something Blue. He also appeared on Dr. Lonnie Smith's 2016 album Evolution and played on pianist Kenny Barron's Grammy-nominated 2016 trio album, Book of Intuition, and 2018 octet date Concentric Circles.
Also in 2018, Blake returned to his solo work with Trion, featuring saxophonist Chris Potter and bassist Linda May Han Oh. He also reunited with Dr. Lonnie Smith for All in My Mind and paired with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander for 2019's Leap of Faith. In 2020, he joined pianist Barron and bassist Dave Holland for the elegant trio album Without Deception. That same year, he also contributed to tenor saxophonist Oded Tzur's boundary-pushing album Here Be Dragons.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/johnathan-blake
Johnathan Blake
Johnathan Blake, one of the most accomplished drummers of his generation, has also proven himself a complete and endlessly versatile musician. Blake’s gift for composition and band leading reflects years of live and studio experience across the aesthetic spectrum. Heralded by NPR Music as “the ultimate modernist,” he has collaborated with Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Tom Harrell, Hans Glawischnig, Avishai Cohen, Donny McCaslin, Linda May Han Oh, Jaleel Shaw, Chris Potter, Maria Schneider, Alex Sipiagin, Kris Davis and countless other distinctive voices. DownBeat once wrote, “It’s a testament to Blake’s abilities that he makes his presence felt in any context.” A frequent presence on Blue Note records over the past several years, Blake has contributed his strong, limber pulse and airy precision to multiple leader releases from Blue Note artists including Dr. Lonnie Smith’s Breathe (2021), All in My Mind (2018) and Evolution (2016) and Kenny Barron’s Concentric Circles (2018), the latter whose trio Blake has been a vital member for nearly 15 years.
Born in Philadelphia in 1976, Blake is the son of renowned jazz violinist John Blake, Jr. — himself a stylistic chameleon and an important ongoing influence. After beginning on drums at age 10, Johnathan gained his first performing experience with the Lovett Hines Youth Ensemble, led by the renowned Philly jazz educator. It was during this period, at Hines’s urging, that Blake began to compose his own music. Later he worked with saxophonist Robert Landham in a youth jazz ensemble at Settlement Music School. Blake graduated from George Washington High School and went on to attend the highly respected jazz program at William Paterson University, where he studied with Rufus Reid, John Riley, Steve Wilson and Horace Arnold. At this time Blake also began working professionally with the Oliver Lake Big Band, Roy Hargrove and David Sanchez. In 2006 he was recognized with an ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award, and in 2007 he earned his Masters from Rutgers University, focusing on composition. He studied with the likes of Ralph Bowen, Conrad Herwig and Stanley Cowell. Deeply aware of Philadelphia’s role as a historical nerve center of American music, Blake has immersed himself in the city’s storied legacy — not just jazz but also soul, R&B and hip-hop. In many ways he’s an heir to Philadelphia drum masters such as Philly Joe Jones, Bobby Durham, Mickey Roker and Edgar Bateman, not to mention younger mentors including Byron Landham, Leon Jordan and Ralph Peterson, Jr..
Johnathan Blake's debut release on Blue Note Records signals shifting tides for a career that’s yet to crest.The drummer, composer, and progressive bandleader continually refines and renews an expression bonded to the lineage of Black music that fluoresces across Homeward Bound. Warmth of phrasing abounds as Blake layers a sound that’s at once relaxed and urgent. Alongside an innate ride cymbal, his melodic treatment of the drum kit reflects a generations old understanding of the instrument and allows his compositions to engage the myriad artists who bring them life.
Homeward Bound features Blake’s band Pentad, a quintet of musicians whose expressions inhabit that mystery of time and space. Pentad’s core trio is comprised of longtime collaborator and friend Dezron Douglas whose strong yet reflexive bass presence saturates each track, and acclaimed Cuban-born keyboardist David Virelles on piano, Rhodes and Minimoog. Blake’s Blue Note label mates ImmanuelWilkins and Joel Ross complete the multigenerational quintet on alto saxophone and vibraphone. Though distinct in their expressions, the rising star artists share a cooperative quality intrinsic to their improvising.
“The name represents us as five individuals coming together for a common cause: trying to make the most honest music as possible,” says Blake who assembled the band with the intention of composing for a fuller, more explicit chordal sound than his past projects have featured. The result is a wildly intuitive, tight sound that embraces spontaneity and relies on trust.
“I think the sound also comes from years of Dezron and David and me playing together, and the whole history of Immanuel and me knowing each other from the Philly days, and then Immanuel’s hookup with Joel.” Even Blake and Ross had their own hookup going before forming Pentad from a Jazz Gallery commission the leader received several years earlier. “There’s a bit of history with everybody in the group, so when we come to play together, it’s a unique band sound.”
Opening with a tender foundational gesture from Douglas, the album’s title track celebrates the short effervescent life of Ana Grace Marquez-Greene. Daughter of saxophonist Jimmy Greene and flautist Nelba Marquez-Greene, Ana Grace perished in the Sandy Hook tragedy nearly a decade ago. For Blake, who recalls the moment of her birth, Ana Grace’s time on earth resonates. “When little Ana was born, I remember what a blessing she was,” says Blake, who was on the road with Greene at the time in TomHarrell’s band. “She had such a lively presence. So when I heard she’d been taken away, it affected me and I started writing this tune.”
Reminiscent of a melody she might have hummed as she bounced into the room, “Homeward Bound (forAna Grace)” prompts joyous and contemplative trades between Ross and Wilkins, a luminescent solo from Virelles and a feature from Blake just as effervescent as the spirit it honors. “She was always singing,” says Blake, “any room she went in, she would just sing.”
Another of the album’s buoyant melodies surfaces on “Rivers & Parks.” Featuring solo contributions fromRoss, Wilkins, Virelles, and Douglas, respectively, the composition honors works by Sam Rivers and AaronParks. At his home in New Jersey, Blake had been playing Rivers’ “Cyclic Episode” and Parks’ “Hard-BoiledWonderland” on repeat when a melody of his own emerged. Later he realized all three tunes had in common their 16-bar form. “I didn’t even plan to write a tune like that,” he says. “I guess I was very inspired by listening to those two compositions.”
Throughout Homeward Bound, the artists tangle avenues along what’s grounded and what’s unbound.Wilkins and Blake spark an open dialogue at the start of Douglas original “Shakin’ the Biscuits,” playing off mood colors from Virelles. Laying down the ground rules at 45 seconds into the track, Douglas brings everyone into the groove. Virelles allows textural choices to influence where he takes the music, playing piano, Rhodes and minimoog at different moments.
Soul-cleansing and meditative, “Abiyoyo” reflects Blake’s take on the traditional South African folktale.The chart had been written in 6/8 but, for the recording, the leader was hearing — and feeling —something different. “I wanted it to be something you could feel almost as a lullaby,” he says. “I was hearing this slow 3, and immediately the rest of the band caught the vibe. This wasn’t a piece we were gonna burn out on solos. It was a tone poem.” That burner would happen later on. Blake introduces “LLL”in a swinging gesture of grace and conviction. Limelighting highest level interactivity among band members and solos from Virelles and Ross, the tune is a channel for the vibraphonist’s signature arcs and turns and high-velocity lyricism.
Aligned with his artistry, Blake’s arrangement of Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out” bonds an iconic vamp and enduring melody with the drummer’s intuitive feel and phrasing as well as his harmonic instincts. “It’s one of my favorite songs,” he says. “That melody just plays itself.” The band’s treatment of the 1982 hit reveals critical homework on the part of its younger members. “The only people who were aware of the tune were me and Dezron [laughs],” says Blake. “But they really got inside it. Immanuel played his butt off. He went to some different places.”
HOMEWARD BOUND
The poignant title track “Homeward Bound (for Ana Grace),” which was released today, celebrates the short effervescent life of Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, the daughter of saxophonist Jimmy Greene and flutist Nelba Marquez-Greene who perished in the Sandy Hook tragedy nearly a decade ago. For Blake, who recalls the moment of her birth, Ana Grace’s time on earth resonates. “When little Ana was born, I remember what a blessing she was,” says Blake, who was on the road with Greene at the time in Tom Harrell’s band. “She had such a lively presence. So when I heard she’d been taken away, it affected me and I started writing this tune.”
Reminiscent of a melody Ana Grace might have hummed as she bounced into the room, “Homeward Bound (for AnaGrace)” prompts joyous and contemplative trades between Ross and Wilkins, a luminescent solo from Virelles and a feature from Blake just as effervescent as the spirit it honors. “She was always singing,” says Blake, “any room she went in, she would just sing.
Blake assembled Pentad with the intention of composing for a fuller, more chordal sound than his past projects have featured. The result is a wildly intuitive, tight sound that embraces spontaneity and relies on trust. “The name represents us as five individuals coming together for a common cause: trying to make the most honest music as possible,” he says. “I wanted to create a record where people would get inside my head. I want them to see the story I was trying to tell. That’s my hope.” Heralded by NPR Music as “the ultimate modernist,” the Philadelphia-raised artist has collaborated with Pharoah Sanders,Ravi Coltrane, Tom Harrell, Hans Glawischnig, Avishai Cohen, Donny McCaslin, Linda May Han Oh, Jaleel Shaw, ChrisPotter, Maria Schneider, Alex Sipiagin, Kris Davis and countless other distinctive voices. DownBeat once wrote, “It’s a testament to Blake’s abilities that he makes his presence felt in any context.” A frequent presence on Blue Note records over the past several years, Blake has contributed his strong, limber pulse and airy precision to multiple leader releases from Blue Note artists including Dr. Lonnie Smith’s Breathe (2021), All in My Mind (2018) and Evolution (2016) and KennyBarron’s Concentric Circles (2018), the latter whose trio Blake has been a vital member for nearly 15 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnathan_Blake
Johnathan Blake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Johnathan Blake, Oslo Jazz Festival 2018
Johnathan Blake (born on June 1, 1976, in Philadelphia) is an American jazz drummer.
Biography
Johnathan Blake is the son of jazz violinist John Blake Jr. He started playing the drums when he was ten; He gained his first experience in his hometown in the Lovett Hines Youth Ensemble. After graduating from George Washington High School, he studied jazz at William Paterson University with Rufus Reid, John Riley, Steve Wilson and Horacee Arnold. During this time he began to work as a professional musician, among other things in the Oliver Lake Big Band, with Roy Hargrove and David Sánchez. In 2006, he received the ASCAP Young Composers Award; the following year he completed his studies with a master's in composition at Rutgers University (studied with Ralph Bowen, Conrad Herwig and Stanley Cowell).[1]
His first recordings were made in 1996 by Norman Simmons; Blake then worked in the Mingus Big Band in the 2000s and appeared on their Grammy-nominated albums Tonight at Noon (2002) and I Am Three (2005). He also played with Ronnie Cuber, Russell Malone, Randy Brecker and Joe Locke, with whom he performed at JazzBaltica in 2009.
In 2012, Sunnyside Records released Blake's debut album The Eleventh Hour, which featured saxophonists Mark Turner and Jaleel Shaw.[2] With Thomas Maintz and Scott Colley, he presented the joint album Present, which was followed in 2014 by his album Gone, But not Forgotten for Criss Cross Jazz and in 2019, by his double album Trion (with his trio with Chris Potter and Linda Oh). His album Homeward Bound was released on Blue Note in 2021.
Blake recorded the album Brooklyn Jazz Session (2011) with musicians like Benjamin Koppel, Kenny Werner and Scott Colley. In 2018 he worked with Jonathan Kreisberg at Dr. Lonnie Smith's album All in My Mind (Blue Note). In 2019, he was a member of the Kálmán Oláh Quartet (with John Hébert and Tim Ries), and also in the Oded Tzur quartet. He can also be heard on recordings be Omer Avital, George Colligan, Wayne Escoffery, Tom Harrell, Brian Lynch, Donny McCaslin, Monday Michiru, Alex Sipiagin, Jack Walrath and Greg Abate (Magic Dance: The Music of Kenny Barron). In the field of jazz, Blake participated in 72 recording sessions between 1996 and 2020. [3]
External links
"Jonathan Blakes Website". johnathanblake.com. 2018-04-03.
Johnathan Blake at AllMusic
Johnathan Blake discography at Discogs
"Drummer Johnathan Blake | rhythm and grooves". web.archive.org. 2018-08-26. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
Johnathan Blake: Before & After
The drummer of prime pedigree loves his pockets
When the world was in a more social way, the sight of Johnathan Blake behind the drum kit was a sign of maximum support, comfort, and taste. It still is today, as we gather around our laptops to enjoy music online. Ask any of the notable bandleaders who’ve brought Blake onstage over the years, Pharoah Sanders, Tom Harrell, Ravi Coltrane, Kenny Barron, Maria Schneider, Q-Tip, and Dr. Lonnie Smith among them: His balance of drive and openness—locking down a pulse free of a locked-down feel, being propulsive without the push—is one of the subtler charms on the current scene. He also offers one of the more distinctive sights in modern jazz. Other than perhaps Antonio Sánchez, do any drummers position their cymbals lower or flatter? He’s a photographer’s dream, unobstructed from the waist up.
To fans who know Blake’s heritage, and to many followers on Facebook who are learning about it through copious posts filled with childhood photos, he’s to the jazz manor born. Son of violinist John Blake, Jr., he arrived in the U.S.A.’s bicentennial year, growing up in Philadelphia’s rich musical hotbed of the ’80s and ’90s and embraced by giants, literally; among his online throwback images are preteen Johnathan hugged by the likes of Elvin Jones, Joanne Brackeen, and others. In recent years, he has stepped out as a leader, bringing forth albums on a variety of labels—The Eleventh Hour (Sunnyside, 2012), Gone, But Not Forgotten (Criss Cross, 2014), and Trion (Giant Step Arts, 2018). A new recording being readied for Giant Step, Homeward Bound, features his latest group Pentad: saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist David Virelles, vibraphonist Joel Ross, and bassist Dezron Douglas.
In 2020, the world has changed, and Blake continues to rise to the challenges of the day, staying limber, writing music, performing online as often as he can. He chooses to look at the positive side of the lockdown: “It’s been kind of a joy to be able to wake up and not really have any set thing to do, to be home for a change, like I’m back in high school again. I haven’t had this much time off in years, so I’m trying to make the best of it. That’s all we can do.”
Blake is grateful too for the songwriting grant he recently received from the newly formed Jazz Coalition Commission Fund. “I appreciate Brice [Rosenbloom, Jazz Coalition founder with Gail Boyd and Danny Melnick] and everybody doing this. They selected around 50 musicians for this grant, to write a piece of music dealing with the times we’re living in right now and perform it. I had already started writing some music dealing with some of the people we lost because a lot were actually from my hometown.”
In late July after months at home, Blake performed at New York’s Jazz Gallery, whose director Rio Sakairi is doing her best to keep the scene alive, for a live stream with Ravi Coltrane’s “classic” quartet—back with Virelles and Douglas. “That was the first time playing since March. It was very emotional for me hitting those first notes. I was like, ‘Man, this feels really different.’ I was trying to dust off the cobwebs, a lot of Sloppy Joe Jones there, but I was having fun. It just felt good to play with some other people besides playing with Logic [the software, not the DJ]. It just felt great.”
This listening session was conducted online via Zoom with more than 50 people attending, some from as far away as South Africa. It was Blake’s first Before & After.
Listen to a Spotify playlist featuring most of the songs in this Before & After:
1. Aziza
“Sleepless Night” (Aziza, Dare2). Chris Potter, tenor saxophone; Lionel Loueke, guitar; Dave Holland, bass; Eric Harland, drums. Recorded in 2015.
BEFORE: All right. I think I got it. I know that’s Lionel [Loueke]. Even before he came in with the vocals I could tell. I’ve played a lot with him and there’s something he does with effects, like almost a slapping thing he does a lot with the guitar. I’ve always enjoyed hearing that. That sounds like Eric Harland on drums. There’s an attack Eric does that really sounds familiar to me, and also the way he tunes his snare is very unique. That’s Chris Potter, of course.
AFTER: Chris has a certain sound—I’ve played with him for many years so I can pretty much tell it’s him right away, and also Eric. He’s using some different cymbals that I haven’t heard him use in a while, so it took me a second, but as soon as he started playing the snare I was like, “Okay, that’s Harland.” I love his interaction between the snare and bass drum, the conversation he has.
Then Lionel has such a distinct sound on his instrument. I’ve watched him do some solo projects, which are always amazing, and about three or four years ago I was in St. Louis at the Bistro with Dr. Lonnie Smith and he was a special guest with us, with Jonathan Kreisberg. It was just amazing to have two guitars for those four nights, and to listen to the contrast of the two guitars.
I caught Aziza live at the Chicago Jazz Fest … no, no, it was in Europe. I can’t remember. Maybe Perugia [Umbria Jazz Festival] or something like. It was great. Dave gives each member the freedom to create. It’s a beautiful experience. I had the pleasure of working with him recently with Kenny Barron, and I love how he encourages the interaction. He doesn’t want you to just play time. He wants you to interact with everything that’s going around, creating some rhythmic tension or whatever. He’s such a sturdy player so you really feel free, like you can go anywhere.
I’ve noticed Dave’s smaller groups might just be three or four players, but it’ll feel like 10 people onstage.
Yeah. That’s what I loved about that quintet he used to have with Robin [Eubanks] and Chris [Potter] and Steve Nelson. It almost had a big-band feeling to it, and that speaks volumes to the way he composes—you can hear the bigger picture. With Dave, the composing and the playing all goes together. There’s no “I” in band, so in a band situation it has to be everybody that’s involved in the project. When you get great musicians together like these, you’re listening for that interaction, you’re wondering what’s the story they’re telling, what journey are they going to take us on. Everybody gets their chance to interject what they’re feeling. And if the leader is open enough, like Dave is, he just goes along with it and that’s what’s supposed to happen. He got these musicians because he knows how they play, he got them because he respects what they do on and off the bandstand.
2. Lee Morgan
“Beehive” (Live at the Lighthouse, Blue Note). Morgan, trumpet;
Bennie Maupin, tenor saxophone; Harold Mabern, piano; Jymie Merritt,
electric bass; Mickey Roker, drums. Recorded in 1970.
BEFORE: All right! Is that Live at the Lighthouse? I know this composition—it’s by Harold Mabern, “Beehive.” That’s a great record. That’s the history right there—one of my favorites. That’s Joe Henderson, right? Oh, okay, Bennie [Maupin]. I haven’t heard this in a while. I think I had that record on vinyl first before it came out on the boxed set. I wore this recording out.
Mickey [Roker] was my teacher and he has a very distinct sound on the instrument that never left him. I used to go see him when he used to play with Shirley Scott every week at Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus. He was one of the drummers while I was coming up in Philly who was still there, and he and Edgar Bateman and Bobby Durham were the three wise men that took me under their wings, and I was always grateful.
Mickey had this sound that he could get on the snare and I always used to bug him about it. I was like, “Man, how do you get that?” He would always call me “Little Blake” because he knew my dad—“Little Blake, you just gotta listen to the music.” I’d say, “No, that’s not it.” I would bug him, man. He kinda let me work it out, and that’s what a great teacher is supposed to do: They guide you but they want you to figure it out for yourself. Eventually I got to it. It’s still ingrained in my brain, stuck with me forever. He’s a master.
When I was going to William Paterson University, Harold Mabern was one of my ensemble teachers and I remember he brought in that tune, “Beehive.” He always talked about how he wrote it for Philly Joe [Jones] but never got a chance to record it with Philly. Whenever somebody would introduce me to a new tune I would try to see where it was first recorded, and study that original recording. I got used to listening to records all the way through. Now you can just push a button and skip around, but I always liked listening to the whole record. Then turn it over and listen to the B side.
Respecting the sequence—like putting together a set list for a gig.
Yeah, in a way it is. I feel like you get a glimpse in the person’s head, how they were thinking about the overall flow of the album. If you skip around, you just don’t know what the thinking was behind why they put this song where. Even now, if I’ve downloaded something on iTunes, I’ll listen through the whole record.
3. Christian McBride’s New Jawn
“Ke-Kelli Sketch” (Christian McBride’s New Jawn, Mack Avenue). Josh Evans, trumpet; Marcus Strickland, tenor saxophone; McBride, bass; Nasheet Waits, drums. Recorded in 2018.
BEFORE: Is that [Joe] Lovano? Is that Dave King? Something in the way that he’s attacking the drums reminds me of something Dave would do. That’s killin’. I like it. It’s funny, the hi-hats remind me of Tony [Williams] and the cymbals remind me of some stuff I’ve heard Andrew Cyrille do. You’re throwing me with this one, man. I love it, it’s amazing. It’s not a bass player record? It sounds like it is—it’s a bass-heavy record. It’s the overall sound, the first thing I hear is the bass, he like really gets the wood sound and you can almost hear the rosin on the bow. I love hearing that essence, the actual sound of the instrument.
I love the interaction too. I especially love the interaction with the bass and the drums. It reminds me of some other stuff I’ve heard—Gerald Cleaver, some stuff he does. I’m curious to see who it is.
AFTER: Really? Wow. I’ve never heard Christian play like that. It’s refreshing to hear him going there like that. He can go in the big house, so to speak. And Nasheet is always amazing—one of my favorites. I don’t know why I couldn’t recognize him. I’m not used to hearing Christian in this setting, so it kind of threw me. This is an amazing record. I’m thinking, let me investigate this a little more. I’ve seen this group play live a couple times at the Vanguard. They never disappoint, they always kill it.
I should have gotten Nasheet, though, although it also doesn’t sound like the usual cymbals he uses. He has like an old [Zildjian] K that he uses sometimes and it didn’t sound like that. This is his tune?
Nasheet pushes everybody in a different direction too, which is great. I like that he’s willing to … not force, but to interject certain things that will get people out of their comfort zone. I’ve seen him do that with Jason [Moran], of course, and other bands he’s been in, Scott Colley and people like that. He’s a few years older than me, so he was already on the scene when I got here. He’s like me a bit—growing up with his father on the jazz scene, always entrenched in the music. When I came to New York he was still playing with [saxophonist] Antonio Hart, then I think [pianist] Marc Cary had a trio with him and [bassist] Tarus [Mateen] early on. I always learn a lot when I go to see him play. He always stays true to himself as an artist, never wavers in how he plays, and you either come along or you don’t.
4. Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science
“Pray the Gay Away” (Waiting Game, Motéma). Nicholas Payton,
trumpet; Morgan Guerin, tenor saxophone, EWI, bass, vocals; Matthew
Stevens, guitar, vocals; David France, Layth Sidiq, Mimi Rabson,
violins; Aaron Parks, synthesizers, vocals; Chris Fishman, Edmar Colón,
keyboards; Carrington, drums, percussion, vocals; Nêgah Santos,
percussion; Debo Ray, vocals; Brian “Raydar” Ellis, MC; Kassa Overall,
MC, turntables. Recorded in 2019.
BEFORE: That’s killin’. Is that Nate [Smith]? I liked the overall arrangement but I especially loved the pocket. It reminded me of how Nate plays grooves. He has a certain attack when he hits the drums, especially when he’s crashing on the cymbal. Always in the pocket, never lets the groove suffer. Hmmm. I’m not sure. I thought for a second it might be Chris [Dave]. Hold on. Let me try to figure this one out. I don’t know, is it the Drumhedz?
AFTER: Oh, it’s Terri. Well, that makes sense. She can play pocket like no other. Is this the new record, with Kassa? They did an [NPR] Tiny Desk concert recently and it was great. Terri’s one of my favorites—one of the ones that can play straight-ahead but also play the groove, and it always feels good. No hiccups in the playing, so to speak—such a complete player.
The very first time I saw her was when she was playing on The Arsenio Hall Show. I think the first time I met her she was playing with Herbie [Hancock] and that had to be in the mid-’90s. They were on tour and I got to see her in Barcelona. I was just in awe. I never want to bother somebody when they first come off the stage, but I just wanted to tell her how much I enjoyed her playing. It was like, “Yo, I’m a big fan.” [Laughs] A really brief conversation.
Recently we’ve gotten a bit closer. I guess it was last year Kenny Barron did a residency at SFJazz and the first night was different duos, with Regina Carter, Eddie Henderson, and Terri Lyne. I sat backstage and watched and then we got to talking afterwards. She’s an amazing player, and an amazing person too. I like that she’s also getting into the educational component of the music too, teaching at Berklee. It’s a different mindset when you have working artists that are also teachers. They can tell you exactly what it’s like to be on the road and what the overall vibe is.
It’s also interesting to see she’s surrounding herself with some up-and-coming musicians, and the message that’s in her music. That’s an important part of this music too. I think back to all the luminaries who came before when it wasn’t as easy to speak out as it is now, but still they weren’t afraid to do so—Billie [Holiday], Max [Roach], Abbey [Lincoln], Miles. They put that in their music, like Terri and others are still doing. It’s important to keep these conversations open. You have to because that’s the only way that change can come about. Enough is enough, and we have to make changes. Stuff can’t keep continuing to go along the way it’s been. Seeing more and more of that happening now in the music is a beautiful thing. It’s being led now by people like Terri, and especially by this younger generation.
5. Philly Joe Jones
“Gone” (Showcase, Riverside). Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Julian
Priester, trombone; Bill Barron, tenor saxophone; Pepper Adams, baritone
saxophone; Sonny Clark, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Jones, drums.
Recorded in 1959.
BEFORE: [Immediately] Classic! [Shifts to mock understatement] It’s all right. If this is the best you got, whatever. [Laughs] What a great recording. I haven’t heard that in a long time. Of course, this is Philly … Philadelphia Joe Jones. Oh man, classic. It just speaks for itself. Everything he plays is just so in the pocket, it has this soulfulness to it. Every time I hear him, you can always tell this was a dance music. It’s like you can dance to his solos, man, it just feels so good every single time. Everything is just perfect. You can’t mistake that man. If I got that wrong, Kenny Washington would have disowned me. I know Kenny’s online here with us.
Philly was such a heavy presence even though he wasn’t in Philadelphia when I was coming up. He still set the bar really high for drummers in Philly, and continues to do so even after all these years of being gone. We’re all striving to get to that sound and overall vibe on the instrument, making people forget about their troubles.
I got to meet him one time when I was two years old and my father took me to see him. No, I don’t remember being two, but I think it was at this place called the Bijou Café in Philadelphia. There was another gentleman that played with him and with my father, the great pianist Sid Simmons. When I got a little older Sid would tell me stories about being on the road with Philly. He said he was a character, but was always really serious about the music. When it came time to hit, it was take-no-prisoners. That comes through on this recording. There’s also a video I love of Thelonious Monk and I don’t know who the drummer is playing with him. At one point Monk gets him off the drums and brings Philly on, who’s waiting in the wings, and he just kills it. He left nothing on there.
[Looks at image of Showcase LP] I still have that on vinyl too. Everything on it just … just makes you so happy, man. For me, that’s what music is supposed to do, it’s supposed to uplift and up-build. He just had a way of bringing the joy. Every time I hear him I remember why I wanted to start playing this instrument. Thank you, I needed that.
6. Nate Smith
“Paved” (Pocket Change, Waterbaby). Smith, drums. Recorded in 2018.
BEFORE: Where was that recorded at? A home studio, really? That sounds amazing. Is that Jamire [Williams]? I know he did a solo record and experimented with different drum kits and filters trying to get different sounds. I don’t know. It’s cool. It doesn’t speak to me in the same way when it’s played right after Philly Joe, but I dig it. I wasn’t ready for it, but let’s just go there. Wait, is that Nate? That’s the record called Pocket Change, right?
He’s a special dude. His pocket stuff is just unbelievable. I remember hearing him very early on with Betty Carter. He had a certain groove even when he was playing straight-ahead that was just unbelievable. Then I heard him later on one of his first gigs with Dave Holland—coming in after Billy Kilson had been in that band for ages, at least six years, which was not an easy thing to do. It was really interesting to hear what he was doing with the music, making it his own. He took it to some places that made Dave and the rest of the band play differently.
Then with his own band, with Fima [Ephron] and Jaleel [Shaw]. His writing is very creative and he never forsakes the groove and never forgets about the melody. I feel like sometimes when people are writing more in this vein they want to write something so complicated, and you don’t really have to do that, man. You want something that people can walk away remembering, singing what’s been written. For me, Nate always has a way of doing that. He writes some complex rhythmic stuff, some odd-meter stuff, but it’s always in a groove.
Nate’s amazing, and I got to experience that firsthand. We recorded a record together a few years back with a friend of mine, a trumpet player named Nabaté Isles [2018’s Eclectic Excursions], and there were a couple of tracks where we’re actually playing together. It was nice to have him right next to me, seeing his whole approach, how he attacks the snare. He has these deliberate moves that really make his sound consistent. He’s a monster. One of my favorites.
Have you been tempted to do a beats project like this?
I’m always into trying to find new colors with the set, so I am curious about getting into that vein a little more. But I want it to sound honest. I don’t want to sound like it’s forced. I’ve been taking my time and trying to experiment with different setups and presets and Logic, trying to figure out what I can do. For me, it’s a slow process. I’m really new to this type of thing, but it is interesting and I love hearing what can happen.
Gerald Cleaver just released a record experimenting with more electronic stuff and it’s killin’ [Signs, 577 Records, 2020]. At some point I would love to incorporate that into my playing. Originally Published
7. Billy Hart Quartet
“Teule’s Redemption” (One Is the Other, ECM). Mark Turner, tenor saxophone; Ethan Iverson, piano; Ben Street, bass; Hart, drums. Recorded in 2013.
BEFORE: Billy Hart. I know that sound immediately. It’s a combination of both cymbal and drums. There’s nobody that tunes his bass drum like that. From the tuning, to the tips of the sticks that he uses, the way he attacks the cymbal … very distinct. Is this from All Our Reasons or One Is the Other? They feature the same band, Mark [Turner] and Ethan [Iverson] and Ben Street. He’s another one that’s always had a distinct sound. He always has one foot in the present and one foot in history. You can hear the history of Max and all those players in his playing, but he’s also inspired by what’s around him now. He’s one of my favorites.
I watched one of his live streams from the Vanguard during lockdown, and I tuned in both days. The first night he played this solo, an intro to this tune that they closed the set with. He told a whole story but it was the way he brought it back, he started with this idea and when he came back after playing all this other stuff, he came back to it and it just completed the story. It had this clear beginning, middle, and end. I called him the next day, and said, “Yo, what was that? What did you do there?” Of course he’s not going to tell me. He was like, “Aw man, you know that stuff.” We stayed on the phone for two hours and I still didn’t get the answer but it was all right. I was there with him in that moment, so it was perfect.
He’s known me since I was about two years old so he’s like my uncle,
and I actually talked to him maybe a couple weeks ago for two hours on
so many different subjects, like him coming up in D.C. He talks about
that a lot. All his work with Jimmy Smith and the R&B scene. I’ll
think I got it under my belt and then I go and hear him and I’m like,
“Damn, I gotta go back to the drawing board.”
Jabali never gets old. I feel like he’s always growing as an artist, never comfortable, never remains stagnant. He’s pushing this music and challenging himself too. He doesn’t shy away from challenges.
8. Carlos Santana and Cindy Blackman Santana
“The Star-Spangled Banner” (pre-game ceremony at Game 2 of 2015 NBA Finals, YouTube video). Carlos Santana, electric guitar; Cindy Blackman Santana, drums. Recorded in 2015.
BEFORE: [The video performance ends with a back announcement identifying both players] Oh! You should have cut it out before that. That was great, though. Was that for a football game or something? Okay, NBA Finals. Was that the first or second year they did that?
AFTER: Incredible. Cindy’s a beast. I mean, I could tell that it was Carlos and the way she plays pocket is very distinctive too, very heavy with the floor tom and also on the bass drum. It kind of threw me for a minute because I’m not used to hearing them play duo.
I remember all those records that she did with Lenny [Kravitz] back in the day. I don’t know, there was always something about when she would play funk or rock, it was very bottom-heavy. I think she has a 16″ [kick drum] and a 14″ floor tom and she utilizes both quite a bit. It’s really funky—it almost reminds me of some stuff you would hear Zigaboo Modeliste play with the Meters. I loved it, man.
The spotlight’s really on Cindy, and Carlos plays it so straight.
He does, he does. It was nice to hear that he gave Cindy that room to breathe and to stretch out and she took full advantage of it. He doesn’t really do any variations with it, which is interesting. A lot of times when you hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” being played, you’re used to people taking so many liberties with that song. And on electric guitar, your mind always goes to the Hendrix version. It’s actually a beautiful melody so hearing it played it that way, you’re really able to put the words to the melody.
Carlos is another one that has a very distinct sound on his instrument. It’s really personal, and you can always tell it’s him. But this time it’s like he knows people have heard that song a million times. Even if he’s out in the forefront, he’s not thinking about himself, he’s thinking about the other people that are complementing him. It sounds great.
9. Andrew Cyrille Quartet
“Coltrane Time” (The Declaration of Musical Independence, ECM). Bill Frisell, guitar; Richard Teitelbaum, synthesizer; Ben Street, bass; Cyrille, drums. Recorded in 2016.
BEFORE: [Immediately] Andrew Cyrille. I
just know that sound, man. It’s funny the way the cats of a certain
generation, the way each tunes their drums is really unique to
themselves. The way he was playing the snare right in the beginning, I
was like, “Okay, that’s Andrew.” Is that with [Bill] Frisell? That’s a
great record. I have that one—I actually saw them at the Vanguard before
they recorded this. I love the palettes they create within the music. I
love that military thing Andrew does over that padding, a lot of
five-stroke rolls. Even the way he attacks the snare, like his first
attacks, you can hear the influence of Max, he’s a direct descendant,
and it’s amazing to hear how he’s taken those influences and shaped it
into his own. It’s also great to hear how his playing changed over time,
from playing with Cecil Taylor in the ’60s. There’s a video from ’68 or
around then, and you can hear how he was evolving back then into who he
is now.
I did a discussion with Andrew a few years back for Winter Jazzfest when he was artist-in-residence, at the New School—I remember I talked about how when I listen to him I hear the influences of Max, but what was interesting is that he said he didn’t hang out with Max that much, he said he hung more with Philly Joe and Elvin. They were more inviting to him when he was coming up. I was surprised, but it showed me just because people are listening to each other doesn’t mean they’re going to be tight.
10. Earl Van Dyke
“Ode to Benny B.” (The Motown Sound, Motown). Stevie Wonder,
harmonica; Robert White, Eddie Willis, guitars; Earl Van Dyke, electric
piano; James Jamerson, bass; Uriel Jones, drums; Jack Ashford or Eddie
Bongo, percussion. Recorded in 1969.
BEFORE: What year was that recorded? It’s funny because I don’t know what it sounds like for you, but the recording for me is a little weird, like the balance is off for me. Is that Idris [Muhammad]? The way he’s playing the groove reminds me of something he would do. He’s coming from an R&B place. This one throws me.
It also reminds me of a band Ed Thigpen had in the ’70s when he was playing more pocket stuff. The harmonica player reminded me of Stevie [Wonder]. Wait, who’s that on bass? Is that [James] Jamerson? Did this come out on Motown?
AFTER: Wow. “Ode to Benny B.”—that’s for Benny Benjamin. Am I a fan? Are you kidding me? He’s on all the iconic Motown recordings. He played all those famous pickups that open up all the hits, and he knew how to find the pocket in anything he played. I read it or saw it somewhere that a lot of times the Motown session guys would defer to him to find the correct tempo of a tune, where it laid the best, where it made it feel good, and so he’d kick off the tune. He’s definitely one of my favorites.
11. John Coltrane
“Saturn” (Interstellar Space, Impulse!). Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Rashied Ali, drums. Recorded in 1967.
BEFORE: [Immediately] Rashied. It’s a duo with him and Trane, something on Interstellar Space. What a great record. I knew it was him right before Trane came in. He had this feel that sounded just like him. I love that period of Trane too, but it sometimes gets overlooked. There’s some really beautiful moments after Elvin [Jones] and McCoy [Tyner] left, and what Jimmy [Garrison] and Rashied got to was really special. Like that live from Temple University recording [Offering, Impulse!/Resonance], just the way they played “Naima,” Rashied flowing over it is just unbelievable. You talk about stretching the bar line, man, it’s in his rearview mirror! [Laughs] It’s just amazing what he was hearing, and how he was making Trane play too. It just takes it to a whole new level for me every time I hear it.
I first met Rashied in Philly. There was an outdoor festival there and after he played I followed him around, stalked him a bit. [Laughs] Another time, I want to say it was at the Knitting Factory, we had a chance to sit down and chat for a while. He was a very humble person, a very positive person too. I had one question I always wanted to ask him, and I did—what was he thinking about when he was playing with Trane, what was going through his head? He said he was thinking about colors, oranges and blues and things like that. So it wasn’t so much coming from a rhythmic aspect, he was thinking more in terms of trying to match the colors that he was seeing. I don’t know how that translates to the drum kit, but it was really interesting to hear him articulate it in that way. It’s funny because when you talked to Elvin about playing with Trane, he felt it more as a spiritual thing, while Rashied talked about colors and not necessarily feeling the spirit. I’m sure that was in there for both [of them] in some way, just they felt it differently.
12. Ghost-Note
“Pace Maker” (Swagism, Ropeadope). Jonathan Mones, Sylvester
Uzoma Onyejiaka II, saxophones; Nigel Hall, Bobby Ray Sparks, keyboards;
Anthony “A.J.” Brown, Dwayne “MonoNeon” Thomas, Jr., basses; Robert
“Sput” Searight, drums; Nate Werth, percussion. Recorded in 2018.
BEFORE: Oh man, that’s another one that’s killin’. This reminds me of this band from Chicago, Sabertooth. Do you know them? Is it a group—it’s not Galactic? I liked his pocket, and I loved the groove. It’s not something I would listen to every day because it’s not my go-to vibe. I listen more to stuff from the ’70s like Stevie, the Meters, Sly and the Family Stone. But I appreciate this sound too and I do listen to it sometimes. Is that Larnell Lewis, with Snarky Puppy?
You’re in the right neighborhood, for sure.
AFTER: Ghost-Note! That’s a talented group with MonoNeon, and it’s definitely coming out of the Snarky Puppy vein, which is nice. I love Sput, he’s a bad dude. Before lockdown Ghost-Note were doing a few of those Zildjian Days [live events sponsored by the cymbal manufacturer], they were like the house band. Now that I have time, I’ve been watching a lot of videos of them. I just watched one last night with this young cat, JD Beck, ridiculous. I saw Sput right before he left Snarky at the Monterey Jazz Festival. There’s a picture somewhere of four or five of us drummers, Jamison Ross, Sput, Justin Faulkner, Otis Brown, myself, all together in the lobby while we were waiting to check into the hotel. Another road moment.
Thanks for doing this, Johnathan—I hope it wasn’t too painful.
No, I had a ball. I like the pain sometimes. Originally Published
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER:
Ashley Kahn is a Grammy-winning American music historian, journalist, producer, and professor. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music, and has written books on two legendary recordings—Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane—as well as one book on a legendary record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. He also co-authored the Carlos Santana autobiography The Universal Tone, and edited Rolling Stone: The Seventies, a 70-essay overview of that pivotal decade.
https://downbeat.com/news/detail/johnathan-blake-always-has-been-focused-on-rhythm
Johnathan Blake Always Has Been ‘Focused on Rhythm’
Johnathan Blake takes musical cues from his late father, John Blake Jr., a violinist who performed with McCoy Tyner and Archie Shepp. (Photo: Michael Jackson)
It’s a biting-cold January day in Manhattan.
The wind howls around corners and between the buildings with enough force, seemingly, to peel your skin off. Five stories up from the street, though, there’s enough heat coming off the Jazz Gallery’s stage to warm the whole block.
Drummer Johnathan Blake is guiding a student, a young man in his twenties, through a Thelonious Monk tune, showing him how to be expressive while maintaining the solid swing of the legendary pianist’s era. The student takes a turn at the kit, and then stands up at his teacher’s signal. Blake, a tall, stocky player, moves to the drum throne and offers a demonstration of what he’s looking for: a slow, rumbling shuffle beat that seems to wander and explore, but never goes fully off the path. The student nods thoughtfully, absorbing it all.
The lesson ends, and Blake descends from the stage, sitting at one of the Jazz Gallery’s small tables, a calm smile on his face. A 42-year-old Philadelphia native, he’s the son of John Blake Jr. (1947–2014), a violinist who worked with McCoy Tyner, Cecil McBee, Archie Shepp and others, and made a string of albums as a leader, beginning in 1984.
“My first exposure to live music was through my father, of course,” Blake recalled. “When I was born, my dad was playing with Grover Washington Jr., and Grover was using a drummer by the name of Pete Vincent, a great drummer from Philly. I was really young, 1 or 2 years old, but my parents said when the music started I would just lock in. I was in a trance, nothing could break my attention, and I was always focused on rhythm.”
Despite that, Blake followed in his father’s footsteps at first, picking up the violin at 3 and studying at home, then at Settlement Music School, an organization with multiple branches throughout Philadelphia. It wasn’t until fifth grade that he became a drummer in his elementary school band. By the time he was a teenager, Blake was gigging and sitting in at local jam sessions, and connecting with as many elders as possible. He’d also added another instrument to his arsenal.
“When my dad saw that I was really gravitating to the drums, he made it a point to tell me, ‘All right, if you’re gonna play the drums, I need you to also learn about the piano,’” he said. “So, I started taking piano lessons at 11 or 12. I never really felt that I was great at it, but I could figure out chords and read. I write at the piano; I have keyboards sometimes, and I use them to figure out chords. Sometimes, I’ll sing into my phone—I’ll sing an excerpt or a piece of something that enters my head, and later on, when I have time to sit at the piano I’ll try to flesh it out. I’ll play the melody and try to figure out some chords that go with it.”
Johnathan Blake -- "One for Honor"
Blake enrolled in the jazz program at William Paterson University and later earned his master’s degree in composition from Rutgers University, where he studied with Stanley Cowell. The pianist was able to pull Blake out of a compositional rut by setting challenges for him. Each week, the drummer had to compose a piece for piano using a particular set of parameters, like making the left and right hands play patterns that were a mirror image of each other. “I composed nine or 10 tunes, not that I’d play all of them publicly,” he chuckled, “but it did get me started writing again and flushing out those ideas that I couldn’t get out.”
But it was a gig Blake landed in his late teens that put him on the New York jazz scene’s radar. He became the drummer for the Mingus Big Band, which played every week at Fez, a small room beneath Time Café in Greenwich Village. Blake found it a thrill, as well as a major learning experience.
“When I started getting inside that music, it opened up a whole new world for me. I really learned how the drums are supposed to function in a band. You’re talking about 15 other guys, so you have to learn how to push the band. ... When [the arrangement featured] a soloist, I started thinking about it like a quartet was inside the big band, and really trying to focus on how the soloist was going to shape his solo.”
Blake first encountered saxophonist Chris Potter in the big band, and they’ve continued to work together—Potter is on Blake’s 2014 album, Gone But Not Forgotten (Criss Cross Jazz), and his new release, the live two-CD set Trion (Giant Step Arts). “He had been playing with the band for a couple of years before I joined, and I thought, ‘This dude is special, the way he’s hearing chords and how he’s playing off the harmony,’” Blake recalled. “He really had a unique approach, even back then. It was coming out of Michael Brecker and Joe Lovano and Trane, so he was still developing his own sound, so to speak, but it was really fascinating to hear him.”
“The core of what makes Johnathan great is the depth of his jazz swing feeling,” Potter said. “He literally grew up in it, and you can tell that he feels it and he lives it with his entire self. His ride cymbal beat, the way he approaches it, just feels right—there’s no way you can’t connect with that.”
The Mingus gig led to a unique opportunity for Blake in 2001, when he met hip-hop icon Q-Tip, then breaking out as a solo artist after achieving success with A Tribe Called Quest. The Mingus Big Band’s weekly performances were routinely packed and attracted a crowd of celebrities and other musicians: Members of Metallica or rapper Mos Def might show up to check out the music. “The first time I met [Q-Tip],” Blake recalled, “he was there with Robert De Niro, and he called me over to his table.” The rapper was looking to move in a new direction, and he needed a creative partner. “He was like, ‘I have this idea of doing a live band with me emceeing.’ It was organic, ’cause he was trying to figure it out himself.”
Blake assembled a band that included some of his fellow students and some well-known jazz names, including alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. “We kind of did an audition at my place, and he dug the musicians I put together. We grooved out on some stuff and Q-Tip dug the way we played together, so we would go to his house and start rehearsing. He didn’t have any music, so we would come up with ideas and start recording.”
The resulting album, Kamaal The Abstract, was rejected by Arista Records and sat on the shelf until 2009, when it was released by Jive/Battery. “The timing was a little weird,” Blake recalled. “[Q-Tip] had just put his first record out as a leader [1999’s Amplified], so the label was saying, ‘We can’t put out a record with you singing and a live band. We’d have to change your whole fan base.’”
Since then, Blake has become one of the most in-demand drummers around. He regularly works with trumpeter Tom Harrell, pianist Kenny Barron and organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, among others. He’s also a member of the band the Black Art Jazz Collective. Each setting demands something different, but it’s a testament to Blake’s abilities that he makes his presence felt in any context.
“With Doc, he’s all about the groove,” the drummer said. “Whether we’re playing straightahead or more funk and r&b stuff, he wants that pocket to remain there. And he wants it to be full—he wants it to sound like a big band almost, even if it’s a trio. So, some of the challenges for me [are] how to make that band sound really full without necessarily overpowering it, but still complementing guitar and organ. He’s not so much about chops or anything. He really wants it to be about the groove and finding the pocket, so for me, it took editing some of my own way of playing and thinking to really blend in, and I like those kind of challenges. I like to remain true to myself, but give the leader what he wants out of the band.”
With Barron, Blake’s role is very different—more engine than foundation. “Kenny doesn’t really say much at all. I think I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve rehearsed,” he said with a laugh. “One of the things I’ve learned from being in his band all these years is really pacing myself, and really telling a story. Kenny’s 75 now, so there’s an energy that a younger musician brings that an older musician might not bring, that he looks for. Because he has to play off that. He needs that to give him the fuel to play. If it’s somebody that’s just gonna be as relaxed as him, it’s not gonna work,” he said, laughing again. “He didn’t want me to come in and play all my bebop licks that I studied. He could get somebody that grew up in that tradition and be more authentic. He wanted me to stretch out and play how I normally play and just give him energy.”
As a leader, Blake prefers to let music marinate on the bandstand before it’s committed to tape—another lesson he learned from his father. “Right after my father passed, I was helping my mother clean out the house, and he had kept an old calendar and I found it. One of the first things he did when he joined McCoy Tyner’s band was, he went out on tour for what seemed like a month in Japan. This was summer of ’79 or something. When they came back, that’s when they recorded [Horizon, on which Blake’s violin and compositions are featured]. They had been playing night after night; when they went into the studio, he said it just felt so natural. It was almost like playing another show.”
Blake chose the title of his 2012 debut, The Eleventh Hour (Sunnyside), because he’d waited so long to record it, playing its tunes in public until the band had them down cold. His second release, though, came together quickly. Gone But Not Forgotten was recorded after a makeshift performance at the Jazz Gallery. Blake was asked to put a band together to cover a cancellation, and he recruited Potter, saxophonist Mark Turner (who’d played on The Eleventh Hour) and bassist Ben Street.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of Mark’s, and saxophone players don’t always get a chance to play together,” Potter recalled, “so that was nice to get that experience, to feel like you’re bouncing ideas off him while he’s actually standing next to you.”
Trion showcases Blake in a trio with Potter and bassist Linda May Han Oh, and was recorded at the Jazz Gallery by photographer, recording engineer and Giant Step Arts founder Jimmy Katz, a frequent DownBeat contributor.
The new album includes four Blake compositions, a version of his father’s “Blue Heart,” two by Potter, one by Oh, a version of Charlie Parker’s “Relaxin’ At Camarillo” and a 17-minute take on The Police’s “Synchronicity I,” which Potter and Blake have played together on tour. “It was a great opener [live] and a way to engage people, ’cause if you listen closely you’ll recognize it [and say] ‘Now I’m engaged, now I’m in a trance, now I want to see what they’re gonna do next.’”
While many pieces are muscular and hard-swinging, verging on free at times, Oh’s “Trope” is a throbbing mood piece that begins in near silence. “For me, that particular tune was something a little mysterious,” Oh said. “The way I wrote it was, the melody’s relatively simple, but it starts super low on the tenor, and then it has some other twists and turns, but it’s a simple, relatively open tune. They did such a great job with it—everyone was super sensitive with it.
“I can’t remember the first time I played with Johnathan, but I’ve played with him in quite a few contexts—including with Kenny Barron’s trio on various gigs and in slightly augmented versions of that—as well as with Dave Douglas and some other musicians,” Oh continued. “[Blake] has such an incredible feel—a beautiful, wide beat, but the snap to his playing is just incredible. It’s exciting to play with, super malleable but such a strong vibe. And Chris, he’s out of this world, such an incredible musician—incredible ears, but so quick. It was a great experience.”
Blake expressed a sense of astonishment at Giant Step Arts’ support of his new work: “Jimmy is really encouraging us to make this artistic statement—he really wants us to showcase our music. Record companies don’t want you to do that all the time, and people producing records don’t want you to do that—they want you to play tunes that everybody knows, and they don’t want to hear your original music. So, to have somebody give us so much space to do what we want to do was very special.” DB
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/05/johnathan-blake-homeward-bound-review-blue-note
Johnathan Blake: Homeward Bound review – virtuosi jazz unit scorch and shimmer
(Blue Note)
Drummer
Blake joins with Dezon Douglas, Immanuel Wilkins, Joel Ross and David
Virelles to create enthralling post-bop, soul jazz and Coltraneian pop
In Philadelphia in the late 1970s, a two-year-old Johnathan Blake used to be wheeled to his jazz violinist father John Blake’s gigs with saxophonist Grover Washington – where he would sit entranced by the sight, sound and rhythms of the band’s powerful Philly drummer Pete Vinson. Those memories would help to turn Blake into one of the most creatively supportive drummers of recent times, whose perceptive power has been embraced by heavyweights from the Mingus Big Band, Q-Tip and Dr Lonnie Smith, to post-bop innovators Tom Harrell and Maria Schneider.
Homeward Bound is Blake’s exhilarating debut for the Blue Note label. Pentad, his new quintet, is a contemporary dream-band lineup with longtime bass partner Dezron Douglas, and three acclaimed young virtuosi in alto saxist and fellow-Philadelphian Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Joel Ross, and the Cuba-born global jazz keyboardist David Virelles.
Blake’s ability to float elusively around a groove while implying an emphatic snap that’s felt rather than heard is the constant undertow to this intricate but always open music. The title track emerges from a long-toned sax-led sway to become an enthralling jam, with Wilkins and Ross swapping warmly intricate lines, and Virelles breaking out into typically clipped, concise figures and glistening double-time streams. The soul-jazzy Shakin’ the Biscuits sets the saxophonist blurting exclamatory sounds against a synth-playing Virelles’ shimmery chords, the beautiful South African lullaby Abiyoyo dreamily unfolds over Blake’s lazily handclap-like pulse, and LLL is a contrastingly breakneck postbop sprint. The standout is the quintet’s scorching account of the Joe Jackson night-on-the-town classic Steppin’ Out – double-takingly turning from a respectful nod to an earworm pop hit into an anthemically roaring Coltranesque sermon.
https://www.johnathanblake.com/
https://www.johnathanblake.com/about
Johnathan Blake, one of the most accomplished drummers of his generation, has also proven himself a complete and endlessly versatile musician. Blake’s gift for composition and band leading reflects years of live and studio experience across the aesthetic spectrum. Heralded by NPR Music as “the ultimate modernist,” he has collaborated with Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Tom Harrell, Hans Glawischnig, Avishai Cohen, Donny McCaslin, Linda May Han Oh, Jaleel Shaw, Chris Potter, Maria Schneider, Alex Sipiagin, Kris Davis and countless other distinctive voices. DownBeat once wrote, “It’s a testament to Blake’s abilities that he makes his presence felt in any context.” A frequent presence on Blue Note records over the past several years, Blake has contributed his strong, limber pulse and airy precision to multiple leader releases from Blue Note artists including Dr. Lonnie Smith’s Breathe (2021), All in My Mind (2018) and Evolution (2016) and Kenny Barron’s Concentric Circles (2018), the latter whose trio Blake has been a vital member for nearly 15 years.
Born in Philadelphia in 1976, Blake is the son of renowned jazz violinist John Blake, Jr. — himself a stylistic chameleon and an important ongoing influence. After beginning on drums at age 10, Johnathan gained his first performing experience with the Lovett Hines Youth Ensemble, led by the renowned Philly jazz educator. It was during this period, at Hines’s urging, that Blake began to compose his own music. Later he worked with saxophonist Robert Landham in a youth jazz ensemble at Settlement Music School. Blake graduated from George Washington High School and went on to attend the highly respected jazz program at William Paterson University, where he studied with Rufus Reid, John Riley, Steve Wilson and Horace Arnold. At this time Blake also began working professionally with the Oliver Lake Big Band, Roy Hargrove and David Sanchez. In 2006 he was recognized with an ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award, and in 2007 he earned his Masters from Rutgers University, focusing on composition. He studied with the likes of Ralph Bowen, Conrad Herwig and Stanley Cowell. Deeply aware of Philadelphia’s role as a historical nerve center of American music, Blake has immersed himself in the city’s storied legacy — not just jazz but also soul, R&B and hip-hop. In many ways he’s an heir to Philadelphia drum masters such as Philly Joe Jones, Bobby Durham, Mickey Roker and Edgar Bateman, not to mention younger mentors including Byron Landham, Leon Jordan and Ralph Peterson, Jr..
Johnathan Blake's debut release on Blue Note Records signals shifting tides for a career that’s yet to crest.The drummer, composer, and progressive bandleader continually refines and renews an expression bonded to the lineage of Black music that fluoresces across Homeward Bound. Warmth of phrasing abounds as Blake layers a sound that’s at once relaxed and urgent. Alongside an innate ride cymbal, his melodic treatment of the drum kit reflects a generations old understanding of the instrument and allows his compositions to engage the myriad artists who bring them life.
Homeward Bound features Blake’s band Pentad, a quintet of musicians whose expressions inhabit that mystery of time and space. Pentad’s core trio is comprised of longtime collaborator and friend Dezron Douglas whose strong yet reflexive bass presence saturates each track, and acclaimed Cuban-born keyboardist David Virelles on piano, Rhodes and Minimoog. Blake’s Blue Note label mates ImmanuelWilkins and Joel Ross complete the multigenerational quintet on alto saxophone and vibraphone. Though distinct in their expressions, the rising star artists share a cooperative quality intrinsic to their improvising.
“The name represents us as five individuals coming together for a common cause: trying to make the most honest music as possible,” says Blake who assembled the band with the intention of composing for a fuller, more explicit chordal sound than his past projects have featured. The result is a wildly intuitive, tight sound that embraces spontaneity and relies on trust.
“I think the sound also comes from years of Dezron and David and me playing together, and the whole history of Immanuel and me knowing each other from the Philly days, and then Immanuel’s hookup with Joel.” Even Blake and Ross had their own hookup going before forming Pentad from a Jazz Gallery commission the leader received several years earlier. “There’s a bit of history with everybody in the group, so when we come to play together, it’s a unique band sound.”
Opening with a tender foundational gesture from Douglas, the album’s title track celebrates the short effervescent life of Ana Grace Marquez-Greene. Daughter of saxophonist Jimmy Greene and flautist Nelba Marquez-Greene, Ana Grace perished in the Sandy Hook tragedy nearly a decade ago. For Blake, who recalls the moment of her birth, Ana Grace’s time on earth resonates. “When little Ana was born, I remember what a blessing she was,” says Blake, who was on the road with Greene at the time in TomHarrell’s band. “She had such a lively presence. So when I heard she’d been taken away, it affected me and I started writing this tune.”
Reminiscent of a melody she might have hummed as she bounced into the room, “Homeward Bound (forAna Grace)” prompts joyous and contemplative trades between Ross and Wilkins, a luminescent solo from Virelles and a feature from Blake just as effervescent as the spirit it honors. “She was always singing,” says Blake, “any room she went in, she would just sing.”
Another of the album’s buoyant melodies surfaces on “Rivers & Parks.” Featuring solo contributions fromRoss, Wilkins, Virelles, and Douglas, respectively, the composition honors works by Sam Rivers and AaronParks. At his home in New Jersey, Blake had been playing Rivers’ “Cyclic Episode” and Parks’ “Hard-BoiledWonderland” on repeat when a melody of his own emerged. Later he realized all three tunes had in common their 16-bar form. “I didn’t even plan to write a tune like that,” he says. “I guess I was very inspired by listening to those two compositions.”
Throughout Homeward Bound, the artists tangle avenues along what’s grounded and what’s unbound.Wilkins and Blake spark an open dialogue at the start of Douglas original “Shakin’ the Biscuits,” playing off mood colors from Virelles. Laying down the ground rules at 45 seconds into the track, Douglas brings everyone into the groove. Virelles allows textural choices to influence where he takes the music, playing piano, Rhodes and minimoog at different moments.
Soul-cleansing and meditative, “Abiyoyo” reflects Blake’s take on the traditional South African folktale.The chart had been written in 6/8 but, for the recording, the leader was hearing — and feeling —something different. “I wanted it to be something you could feel almost as a lullaby,” he says. “I was hearing this slow 3, and immediately the rest of the band caught the vibe. This wasn’t a piece we were gonna burn out on solos. It was a tone poem.” That burner would happen later on. Blake introduces “LLL”in a swinging gesture of grace and conviction. Limelighting highest level interactivity among band members and solos from Virelles and Ross, the tune is a channel for the vibraphonist’s signature arcs and turns and high-velocity lyricism.
Aligned with his artistry, Blake’s arrangement of Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out” bonds an iconic vamp and enduring melody with the drummer’s intuitive feel and phrasing as well as his harmonic instincts. “It’s one of my favorite songs,” he says. “That melody just plays itself.” The band’s treatment of the 1982 hit reveals critical homework on the part of its younger members. “The only people who were aware of the tune were me and Dezron [laughs],” says Blake. “But they really got inside it. Immanuel played his butt off. He went to some different places.”
Above all else, Homeward Bound is a narrative celebration of life and legacy. “I wanted to create a record where people would get inside my head,” says Blake. “I want them to see the story I was trying to tell.That’s my hope.”
EQUIPMENT
Yamaha Absolute Maple :
18"x14"-Bass Drum with mount for Rack Toms
Coated Drum Head on Front of the Drum, Clear Head on Back of the Drum
NO HOLE IN BASS DRUM
16"x14"-Floor Tom with legs
NOT MOUNTED ON CYMBAL STAND
14"x14"-Floor Tom with legs
NOT MOUNTED ON CYMBAL STAND
(2) 14"x5 1/2" Snare Drum
12"x8" Rack Tom
Mounted on Bass Drum
NOT MOUNTED ON CYMBAL STAND
10"x8" Rack Tom
Mounted on Bass Drum
NOT MOUNTED ON CYMBAL STAND
4 Cymbal Stands (2 Straight Stands + 2 Boom Stands)
1 Yamaha HI-Hat Stand
1 Spiral Drum Throne
1 Yamaha Snare Drum Stand
1 Yamaha Bass Drum Pedal
http://westviewnews.org/2019/12/01/johnathan-blakes-explosive-debut-as-bandleader-at-the-village-vanguard/gcapsis/
Johnathan Blake’s Explosive Debut as Bandleader at the Village Vanguard
by Karen Rempel
Johnathan Blake with the Tom Harrell Infinity Band at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in November. Tom is standing at the left while a surprise guest trombonist takes the stage. Check out the gorgeous color of Johnathan’s shirt, reflected in the window, and the low rise of the high hats on Johnathan’s kit. Photo by Karen Rempel.
I first saw Johnathan Blake at the Village Vanguard in October 2015, where he was playing drums with Ravi Coltrane’s quartet. I was completely blown away by the intensity of his performance, and by the unique percussion elements he added. His dominance as a drummer was evident even to the neophyte I was at the time. I went backstage to meet him, and we became friends at once. When I brought my mother to see him play with Ravi at the Vanguard in October 2018, Johnathan sat down to chat with my mom after the first set and delayed the start of the second set to talk to her. She was enamored of his kindness and graciousness.
I am a big fan of Johnathan’s, and catch his playing whenever I can. Most recently, I saw him at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola on November 10th with the Tom Harrell Infinity Band. He was incredible on this night. His complex rhythms sounded like he was playing multiple instruments simultaneously, laying a carpet of notes under, over, and through everything. He told me some wonderful news after the show, which is that he will be headlining for the first time in New York, as Johnathan Blake and Pentad, December 3 to 8, 2019 at the Vanguard. If you like jazz, you must check him out in this lineup.
Johnathan Blake has played with the greats—New York’s favorite bandleaders from Ravi Coltrane to Maria Schneider and other top ensembles. Johnathan has laid down the foundation and set the mood for all the great stalwarts in town. He was a member for years in the Tom Harrell Quintet and the Kenny Barron Trio. His bassist pal Dezron Douglas and pianist David Virelles will be playing with him for his headlining gig at the Vanguard, and I can’t wait to see these jazzcats together on stage again. Other members of Pentad include Immanuel Wilkins on alto sax, Joel Ross on vibraphone, and Kris Davis on piano on the weekend.
Johnathan has toured the globe for many years and is truly a world-class, internationally renowned beat-maker. A Grammy-nominated drummer and composer, Johnathan is no light-weight. His discography stretches back to 1996, with his first headlining album, The Eleventh Hour, in 2012, a second CD in 2014, and a new release this year, Trion, featuring Chris Potter and Linda May Han Oh.
Johnathan began playing violin at age three under his violinist father’s guidance, but he never felt at home with the instrument. When he was 10 years old, he scored perfectly on a music aptitude test and a visiting music teacher allowed him to choose an instrument. Without hesitation, Johnathan picked the drum set. We are glad he did!
Johnathan inspired this recording at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in December, 2015, New York Love Affair #19. You can also check out his website for many more excerpts of his music.
https://www.bluenote.com/johnathan-blake-makes-his-blue-note-debut-with-homeward-bound/
September 10, 2021
Homeward Bound—the remarkable Blue Note Records debut by drummer, composer, and bandleader Johnathan Blake—signals shifting tides for a career that’s yet to crest. The album, which will be released on October 29, is a celebration of life and legacy featuring Blake’s quintet Pentad with alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Joel Ross, keyboardist David Virelles, and bassist Dezron Douglas.
The poignant title track “Homeward Bound (for Ana Grace),” which was released today, celebrates the short effervescent life of Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, the daughter of saxophonist Jimmy Greene and flutist Nelba Marquez-Greene who perished in the Sandy Hook tragedy nearly a decade ago. For Blake, who recalls the moment of her birth, Ana Grace’s time on earth resonates. “When little Ana was born, I remember what a blessing she was,” says Blake, who was on the road with Greene at the time in Tom Harrell’s band. “She had such a lively presence. So when I heard she’d been taken away, it affected me and I started writing this tune.”
Reminiscent of a melody Ana Grace might have hummed as she bounced into the room, “Homeward Bound (for Ana Grace)” prompts joyous and contemplative trades between Ross and Wilkins, a luminescent solo from Virelles and a feature from Blake just as effervescent as the spirit it honors. “She was always singing,” says Blake, “any room she went in, she would just sing.”
Blake assembled Pentad with the intention of composing for a fuller, more chordal sound than his past projects have featured. The result is a wildly intuitive, tight sound that embraces spontaneity and relies on trust. “The name represents us as five individuals coming together for a common cause: trying to make the most honest music as possible,” he says. “I wanted to create a record where people would get inside my head. I want them to see the story I was trying to tell. That’s my hope.”
Heralded by NPR Music as “the ultimate modernist,” the Philadelphia-raised artist has collaborated with Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Tom Harrell, Hans Glawischnig, Avishai Cohen, Donny McCaslin, Linda May Han Oh, Jaleel Shaw, Chris Potter, Maria Schneider, Alex Sipiagin, Kris Davis and countless other distinctive voices. DownBeat once wrote, “It’s a testament to Blake’s abilities that he makes his presence felt in any context.” A frequent presence on Blue Note records over the past several years, Blake has contributed his strong, limber pulse and airy precision to multiple leader releases from Blue Note artists including Dr. Lonnie Smith’s Breathe (2021), All in My Mind (2018) and Evolution (2016) and Kenny Barron’s Concentric Circles (2018), the latter whose trio Blake has been a vital member for nearly 15 years.
Firm Roots
As a leader, he took extreme care to record his two excellent albums (the first one was The Eleventh Hour in 2012). As a sideman, he remains a very busy musician as Tom Harrell’s regular drummer since 2005, Kenny Barron’s since 2008, Ravi Coltrane’s since 2012 and gradually Dr. Lonnie Smith’s; not to mention the other gigs, tours and recording sessions. Before that, he honed his skills while working with Oliver Lake Big Band and Mingus Big Band.
At 38, the drummer has already a very strong experience. With his passionate, subtle style and accomplished technique, Johnathan Blake has a deep understanding of the history of jazz and continues to deepen his creativity as a leader and a sideman.
We met Johnathan Blake while he was in Paris with Tom Harrell's quintet, an opportunity to talk about his experience as a musician and to reflect on the most memorable encounters of his life, starting with his father John Blake, Jr., who passed away on August 15, 2014 at the age of 67 (Jazz Hot #668). Gone, but not Forgotten...
Photos Umberto Germinale, Jos Knaepen, Mathieu Perez
© Jazz Hot #670, Winter 2014-2015
Jazz Hot :
What was the
inspiration for your new album Gone,
but not Forgotten?
Johnathan Blake: It’s a tribute to musicians that have passed away. It’s a celebration to them and to their music. And it was a tribute to the musicians that I’ve had a chance to play with. There’s a tune by Jim Hall (Jazz Hot #571). I had the opportunity to work with him not too long before he passed away, maybe a year or so. It’s also a tribute to the Philly musicians who passed away and with whom I also had the honor of sharing the bandstand One of them was Charles Fambrough. He and my father used to work together in McCoy Tyner’s band. Charles was responsible for getting my father the gig with McCoy. Charles also gave me my first gig. I also had the pleasure to play with Philly musicians like Trudy Pitts.
Were you closer to any of those musicians in particular?
I consider Charles almost like an uncle. He would come to my parents’ house and we would get together for dinner. He was a close friend. I also got closer to Trudy and to her son TC III who’s a great vocalist. Trudy played at my grandmother’s funeral. They were all family. I consider them very close.
The album also features two of your originals, "Born Yesterday” and "The Shadower.”
Yes, there are older pieces. One of them is called "Born Yesterday” and is dedicated to Jimmy Greene’s (Jazz Hot #578) daughter Ana Grace1. The second piece is "The Shadower” and is dedicated to Dwayne Burno2. He was another Philadelphian who I had the pleasure to play with. Actually I picked that tune because the last time I played it before I recorded was at a concert at Dizzy’s and Dwayne was the bassist on it. I felt it was the right tune to pay tribute to him. He was such a great musician and a lover of the music. He ate, slept and breathed music. He’s definitely a hero of mine. It’s an honor for me to call him my friend. His family and I are really tight. His wife Wendy and their son Quinn are very good friends.
Sometimes we talk about these musicians for a while and then months later we don’t talk about them anymore. I wanted to do this record and make a point to really have their music and their legacy live on. I also wanted to connect the younger generation to some music and to some musicians that they might not be familiar with. I wanted to do it that way. I hope that when people listen to it they get that sense of a celebration of these people.
You chose tunes by
Eddie Harris, Cedar Walton, Sid Simmons, to name a few; did you play
the tunes their way or make it your own? What was your approach?
Not necessarily but it naturally happens when you’re playing the music of people you knew. At the same time it’s important to put your own stamp on it so to speak. I wanted to find the tunes that were right in this configuration, reeds, bass and drums. I picked up tunes and kind of revamped them so to speak. My version of "Firm Roots” is more fit for the two horns so you don’t miss the chords much.
Cedar Walton (Jazz Hot #520) passed away a year ago, what memories do you keep from him?
I saw Cedar’s very last set at the Vanguard before he passed away. The music was still there though he was weak. That night, my wife and I went to see Chris Potter and it was packed. For Cedar’s gig, there was hardly anybody in the audience. This is a living legend, why aren’t there some of the younger musicians hanging out here? The lesson is if you have the opportunity to do something, don’t put it off. I was always brought up around older musicians. You show your respect and you go and check those guys out. That’s how you learn about this music.
Did you ever have a chance to play with Horace Silver (Jazz Hot #528)?
I got to see Horace Silver play several times. He actually called me when I was still in school, at William Paterson, and he wanted me to try out with his band. This was like in 1996. I think I was out of town at the time. When I came back, I got this message on my answering machine: "This is Horace Silver. I’m starting out auditions in New York and I would really like you to be a part of it. Please come out. You might be the drummer for me.” I remember calling him right back… But he got sick and it all got cancelled. But I cherish this message on one of my cassette tapes.
You picked Chris Potter (ts, as, fl, Jazz Hot #585), Mark Turner (ts, ss) and Ben Street (b), the same musicians as in your first album, The Eleventh Hour, with the exception of Kevin Hayes (p) and Jaleel Shaw (as). Why do you consider them to be the best musicians for you?
I respect them so much as musicians and I knew they would bring to life what I was trying to do in the set of music that we chose. I knew these guys would capture what I wanted. They have such a wide melodic and harmonic pallet when they play. They went beyond what I could think of. It was an amazing session. Mark and Ben and I played trio before. I loved playing in that setting.
What kind of a leader
are you? Did you give them much direction during that session?
I didn’t say too much. When you’re leading a band, you pick the musicians that you know. And they know what to bring to the table. That’s what you call these musicians for. I don’t like putting too many restraints on people or tell them to play a certain way. I want them to feel free to do what they want. I know I’m going to be pleased with whatever they do. And that’s was happened with this recording. It was a great experience. A lot of the tunes that we did were first takes. We caught the idea right away.
Have you all played this album in concert yet?
We haven’t done a CD release party yet. We’re all kind of busy! I’ve been out of town for the last month. Chris works with Pat Metheny. Mark and Ben are doing various things. We’re looking to September to do a release.
Do you play together often?
I haven’t played with Chris that much. We have done some gigs in the past but I play more regularly with Mark and Ben.
When you record an album as leader, how much do you take from the leaders that you work with, like Tom Harrell and Kenny Barron?
I take a lot. Tom Harrell and Kenny Barron have been around for a long time so I watch how they build sets. Someone like Kenny Barron reads the audience right away. He knows when to play a standard or an original. So I watch how they engage with the audience. When I’m going to the studio, I guess I have that in my subconscious and it helps. With this particular record, I really thought about what song I wanted to start with. We started with "Cryin’ Blues” by Eddie Harris. It’s a blues and then we can go to some other things. It’s open. I watch how those musicians make their sidemen feel comfortable. Once you’re relaxed, it makes everything so much easier. The session really went smoothly. Nobody was uptight. It was all about making some music.
When did you first put a band together?
Early 2000, I got together musicians that I think would work well. I didn’t want to hurry up and put a band together. That’s the natural progression. I wanted to think about each individual that I chose. And I wanted to make sure that we would work well together. It’s not just about getting together and making music. It’s about a relationship, creating a family and a sense of brotherhood. I saw a lot of my peers making records right away but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to put together a band that sounded like a band. I wanted to have a distinctive sound and I think we really captured that.
Your dad being a
musician, John Blake, Jr., you were exposed to jazz at an early age.
When I was born in 1976, my father got a gig with Grover Washington, Jr. I was being strollered to these concerts at an early age. We were close to the band. There was Tyrone Brown on bass, Richard Lee Steacker on guitar, Leonard Gibbs on percussion, Pete Vinson on drums, Sid Simmons on keyboard and my father on keyboard and violin. All these guys were a family on the road because they were so tight. And it extended. Grover was a family oriented person. So as much as he could, he would try to invite all the wives and the children out when there were tours. Everybody became very close. And that band stayed together for about three years. Even after the band broke up, my father remained close with most of the musicians in the band. Some of the musicians in Grover’s band appeared in his records when my father recorded as a leader. So these guys knew me from when I was born. It’s the same with McCoy Tyner’s band. I think my dad when through two different bands with McCoy. He would come to the house with his wife and son from time to time and have dinner with the family. I was surrounded with music at an early age.
Were you always drawn to drums?
I was always fascinated with rhythm. First I started with violin but my parents always tell me that when I would hear music on the radio or on a record I would take out spoons and start beating the rhythm. It took a while for them to buy me a drum set (laughs). At age 10, I started taking lessons. I was really serious about it. In the ninth or tenth grade, I decided to stop playing the violin that I had been playing since age 3. I wanted to focus on drums.
Who were your heroes at the time?
If we’re talking specifically about drummers, the first influences were the Philly drummers of that time like Mickey Roker, Edgar Bateman, Bobby Durham (Jazz Hot #647), Leon Jordan, Philly Joe Jones, etc. I grew up listening to the drummers that played in Grover’s band or in McCoy’s band. I was drawn to them and also to the drummers of the 1970s like Idris Muhammad.
Is there a specific sound to Philly musicians?
People always say there is a certain sound of Philly. Just like there is a certain sound of New Orleans or Chicago. All these areas have specific ways to internalize how to play with straight ahead jazz music. It’s hard to explain.
It’s not tangible.
Someone tried to explain one time in an interview. He said it’s like being behind the beat but with the urge of getting to the next measure. But even that is not very convincing. Sometimes I don’t even have to say where I’m from. People hear it. I just played with Benny Golson for the first time at the North Sea Jazz Festival. After we played, the first thing he said to me was "That Philly sound!” (Laughs) It was the first words out of his mouth. We just laughed about it afterwards! So I guess you can hear it right away!
How did you like playing with Benny Golson (Jazz Hot #616)?
It was great! He tells a lot of stories. It’s such an education to be around him. It’s fun to see how he connects with people. I had the opportunity to work with a lot of older musicians, Tom Harrell, Kenny Barron and most recently with Dr. Lonnie Smith. They are from the same generation. I’ve been learning a lot from them. You can’t put a price on these situations that I’ve had the opportunity to be in. It’s such a learning experience.
Were you always drawn to the veterans?
Of course! You need to know what came before in order to get a grasp of the current stuff. And these guys were on the forefront of that. When I was growing up, I wanted to learn where this music was coming from. And when I became serious about making my career and my way of life, I felt it was my duty to study this history.
You studied at William
Paterson with Rufus Reid, John Riley, Horace Arnold and Steve Wilson.
What have you learned from them?
I learned so much especially with Rufus. He really helped put focus on my playing.
What kind of teacher is Rufus Reid (Jazz Hot #607)?
He’s a hands-on teacher. One day I came to combo class and all he had for drums was a cymbal and a hi-hat. He said: "You’re gonna play with a cymbal and a hi-hat and nothing else. And you’re gonna make the band swing. So I want you to focus on your playing, get the clarity of the cymbal beat and lock that in with the hi-hat.” So for months that’s all I did. That hands-on teaching really helped me to focus on my playing and to shape the sound. He wanted me to be aware of the sound that was getting out of the instrument.
What about John Riley?
John Riley was also very instructive. I was very familiar with his books but we never worked on any of them. We talked a lot about developing your own sound on an instrument.
Horace Arnold?
Horace was my first teacher when I got to William Paterson. He was also a very hands-on teacher. We talked about the clarity of the playing and how to pay attention to the sound of the instrument. We worked a lot on time issues. Those lessons still remain with me to this day.
And Steve Wilson (Jazz Hot #577)?
Steve Wilson was a combo teacher. I like the type of musician that can play a gig but also explain very well what they do on stage and convey to the students so that they understand what’s going on. If you’re going to do this as your profession, these are the steps you need to take. He took me under his wing so to speak. Eventually he started calling me for gigs. Being on stage with him was like a class! I was learning.
Who is your favorite
drummer?
My favorite drummer is Elvin Jones (Jazz Hot #562).
Did you ever have a chance to meet him?
He’s one of those musicians that whenever he was in town, I would go and see him and hang out with afterwards. The first time I met him I was 13 or 14. My dad was playing with Steve Turre’s band at the Blue Note. Elvin had his Jazz Machine. After the set, my dad took me to meet him. Elvin was my hero. My dad took me upstairs and introduced me as an aspiring drummer. And right away, Elvin said: "Come here! Give me a hug!” He was one of those people when you met them for the first time you felt you knew them forever. We sat and talked for a while. My dad left. It was just he and I. And then he said I was going to sit on stage with him. He pulled me up on stage and I sat next to him for the whole set.
Who else was in the band?
There was Willie Pickens on piano, Chip Jackson on bass, Ravi Coltrane, Sonny Fortune and I think someone else. Elvin asked me what I wanted to play. At that time, my favorite tune of his was "Three Car Molly.” So that’s the first tune we played! It was an amazing experience! That night, we took a picture with Elvin. When I look at it, it brings back so many memories. It feels like yesterday.
Was your first professional experience with Oliver Lake (Jazz Hot #482)?
Yes, it was around 1994, 1995. Oliver Lake had a weekly gig with his big band at the Knitting Factory. He asked me to join his band. It was a great experience. It was challenging music.
Did you know him before that?
I had met Oliver 3 or 4 years prior to that. I used to do every summer the Jazz Camp in Montclair3 run by bassist Chris White. I was 15 or 16. I got to meet Oliver there. Chris White, Steve Turre, Jimmy Owens, etc, lived in the area at the time. Later on, when I moved to the area to go to school, Oliver found out I was in town. He started calling me for rehearsals at his house and eventually I joined the big band.
Were you playing all originals?
It was all his original music for his big band and I learned how to play with a big band.
What was his style
directing a big band?
It was interesting. He gave a lot of direction but it was open at the same time. It was amazing. Actually the way I wound up playing with the Mingus Band (Jazz Hot #532) was because of Oliver’s big band. John Stubblefield (Jazz Hot #623) was one of the saxophone players. He had heard of me and contacted Sue Mingus. He told her to check me out. That’s how I got the gig.
What was your knowledge of Mingus’ music at the time?
I had studied a lot of his music. At William Paterson, bassist Adam Linz had started a Mingus band group with some of the students. He had arrangements of Mingus. But even prior to college, I had checked out a lot of his music, records like Ah Um. I was very curious and I loved Dannie Richmond. So when I started playing with the Mingus Band, I felt like I had some references. I had to figure out how to play with a big band, how to drive the band and give them that push and energy. For me, it was a challenge.
What did it teach you about the role of the drummer?
Your job is not to be just a timekeeper. It’s about giving that extra energy to the musicians. And they rely on that. So if you’re sluggish, the band is going to sound sluggish. If you’re powerful and you give them the energy, the band is going to be full of energy. I learned at an early age that this is how you drive a band. Later on, when I started to work with smaller groups, I learned my role and what it means to be a drummer in these bands.
At some point, while you were still in college, McCoy Tyner (Jazz Hot #618) asked you to join his band. Is that correct?
He asked my father (laughs). I had started to work with the Mingus Band. It must have been during my second year of college. We had a tour in Japan. It was around 1997. McCoy was on the bill. He had never seen me play. I remember him being there sitting on the side of the stage watching me play. Every night they had like an all-stars jam session. I got picked to play drums with McCoy, Maceo Parker, Makoto Ozone and Michael Brecker. It was crazy! After that tour, I went back to school. One day, my father picked me up. While driving, he told me that McCoy had called him and that he was really impressed by me and he’d like to put me on his band. My father told him no. It was more important to finish school. I was devastated! (Laughs) It just wasn’t the time.
When did you
become of a member of Tom Harrell’s band (Jazz
Hot #594)?
I joined Tom’s band in 2005. I went to see him play with his quintet at the Village Vanguard. At the time, the band was Jimmy Greene, Ugonna Okegwo, Xavier Davis and Quincy Davis. But when I got there, it was a different band. Then Ugonna suggested to Angela, Tom’s wife, to check me out. For my first gig with Tom, it was another completely different band. We played in Marblehead, MA. Then I got asked to play a week with him at the Vanguard. That’s when the band started to come together. There was still Jimmy Greene at the time. We did a couple tours and then about six months after that Wayne Escoffery (Jazz Hot #619) joined the band. Ugonna remained steady in the band. Xavier Davis left and Danny Grissett came in.
Is there any rehearsal when working with Tom Harrell?
Sometimes we’ll get together and do one rehearsal like a week before an engagement at the Vanguard or something.
How much new material do you play?
Tom is always writing music, in the airplane, at the airport, everywhere. It’s a challenge (laughs). Sometimes you get attached to certain tunes and the next time you play, the music is completely different! But I love it! I respect him so much as a composer and as a player. I’ve learned so much with him.
How challenging is it to play his music?
Some of it is very challenging. It sometimes takes a while to get under your belt. After a while, you start to see certain aspects of his writing that makes it a little easier to get inside. But it’s still a challenge! Some tunes are more complicated than others. He writes for the members of the band. It’s got to a point where he can’t hear anybody else play this except for the members of his band just like Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn wrote pieces for Johnny Hodges and the other musicians that they knew so well. Tom trusts us and knows what we are capable of as musicians.
How much direction does he give?
His charts are very clear. Everything is right there. He writes the perfect charts! (Laughs) He should have his own notation program.
Do you prepare your
solos with him differently than you do with others?
I try to have a melodic idea in mind but I don’t like to play the same thing night after night. Tom is inspiring. He really challenges himself as a player. He can play the same tune night after night but it’s always going to sound different.
How early did you start composing?
Lovett Hines4 encouraged us to start writing. I think my first composition dates back to junior high school. Lovett taught me how to formulate chords and melodies. And then it expanded with time. I really enjoy composing.
How do you approach composing as a drummer?
I used the piano to write. I’ll start a melodic idea or I’ll have a rhythmic groove of mine.
Do you have any technical discussion with your dad about the process of making the music?
Totally! I’m so fortunate to have him and he was exposed to a lot of things at a young age too. He equipped me with the knowledge that he had. My father is a well-educated man and he always put heavy emphasis on education. He always encouraged me to study.
In 2005, you studied at Rutgers University, why did you choose to go back to school?
Rutgers has this great program where they give you an aid. It’s a way to keep you in town because you have to turn down some jobs. Also I had been travelling so much, I felt that I needed to take some time off. My wife was pregnant with our first child and I wanted to be around. And I wanted to deal more with composition. At some point, I felt like I wasn’t producing music the way I wanted to. I got to study with Stanley Cowell and Conrad Herwig.
How did you study with Stanley Cowell (Jazz Hot #586)?
I took a private composition course with Stanley. Each week he would give me a certain compositional device to try to use. And each week, I was coming back with some tunes. It was challenging and it was hard to come back to school after 6 years of graduation. I also studied with Victor Lewis (Jazz Hot #584), Ralph Bowen and Conrad Herwig. I value my time there. It was a beautiful experience. Afterwards, I had a better idea on how to shape songs. And around that time I started to work with Tom Harrell.
Do you teach?
I teach privately. I had a couple students but I have a tight schedule. When I teach lessons, it helps me to focus. Sometimes when you play so much you don’t have the time to think on what you are doing. I wouldn’t mind having a regular teaching gig but I like travelling at the same time.
How did you join Kenny Barron’s band (Jazz Hot #575)?
He was using Ben Riley for a while and then he needed some time off. And Kenny’s wife suggested that I work with him. My first gig with him was for a European tour with Ray Drummond. It was an amazing experience. After that he started calling me more. Around 2007, 2008, I became a regular member of his trio and eventually his quintet.
What is his style?
I love it! Sometimes his trio will do more standards. With Kiyoshi Kitagawa (Jazz Hot #638), we always encourage him to perform more some of his originals because he has some great tunes. Sometimes he’ll save his originals if we’re playing in quartet or a quintet setting. I love his way of leading a band. He is very open. He has a reason why he calls you. He expects you to be able to play. If you couldn’t play, he wouldn’t use you. He leaves you to your own judgment about what’s going to feel good on a bandstand. He is a very opened bandleader. He doesn’t dictate what you are supposed to do. He expects you to know it.
Did you prepare to work with musicians such as Tom Harrell, Kenny Barron and Dr. Lonnie Smith (Jazz Hot #580) before joining their band?
I always try to do some form of preparation. I was familiar with Kenny’s music but I did go back to studying more his compositions.
Why do you think Kenny Barron doesn’t play more originals?
I’m not sure. Kenny is such a laid back person. He might feel more at home playing standards. Like any artist, sometimes you are shy about playing your own compositions. Maybe those musicians feel they don’t measure up to whatever their expectation is. Musicians are so exposed. One time with Kiyoshi we were talking him out to some originals. So for the first set we did all standards and for the second one we played all originals. It was amazing.
How much space does he give you?
He sits the music in front of you and allows you to create. For us, improvising musicians, creating on the spot, that’s our job. That’s Kenny belief: you do what you want with this, just make it feel good. I could count how many rehearsals I’ve had with him since I joined the band. There has been about two. He might have a couple new tunes or ask us to bring some music. And even there, he won’t tell you how to play. You’ll see what you come up with. If it’s something he is really not feeling, he’ll ask you to try something different. It’s very open. I’ve been in some situations where the leaders give a lot of directions. But, you know, that’s their take on how they want their music to sound. I don’t necessarily like playing like that that much…
What is your most
challenging experience as a sideman?
Musically? Recently a challenging gig for me was to play with Clarence Penn (Jazz Hot #527) and Maria Schneider (Jazz Hot #597) for two nights at the Allen Room. I had to learn all that music and play it like if I had been in the band for a long time. At least that’s my approach. It was challenging but it was also beautiful experience. In terms of musical styles, I played 5 years with Russell Malone (Jazz Hot #629). Sometimes he would put more limitations on me. But this is how he chose to lead his band and that’s what he wanted. That’s cool. When you’re a sideman, you’re at the mercy of the leader. You have to make them feel comfortable. Playing with the Mingus Band was also a challenge. We were trying to play the music of a man who already had passed away. And it’s a big band, 14 people that have different ideas how the music should sound and they are not afraid to say what they think.
After working with big bands and different units for years, what is your approach of rhythm today?
I gain inspiration from
African and Brazilian rhythms and try to incorporate all those styles
with jazz. I listen to everything that surrounds me.
2. Bassist Dwayne Burno died on December 28, 2013 at the age of 43 from complications of kidney disease.
3. Jazz Opportunity for Youth at Montclair State College, NJ
4. Saxophonist Lovett Hines (Jazz Hot #658) created the Lovett Hines Youth Ensemble in Philadelphia.
Contact
www.johnathanblake.com
Discography (selection)
Leader
CD 2012. The
Eleventh Hour, Sunnyside Communications 1304
CD 2014. Gone, but not Forgotten, Criss
Cross Jazz 1368
Sideman
CD 1996. Norman Simmons, The Heat And The Sweet, Milljac 5637686635
CD 1999. Mingus Big Band, Blues & Politics, Dreyfus 36603 2
CD 2001. Mingus Big Band, Tonight at Noon… Three of Four Shades of
Love, Dreyfus 36633 2
CD 2001. Monday Michiru, Episodes In Color, Sony Music Associated
Records 1388
CD 2002. Alex Sipiagin, Mirrors, Criss Cross Jazz 1236
CD 2003. Mingus Big Band, The Essential Mingus Big Band, Dreyfus 36628 2
CD 2003. Jordan Hall, Something Different, Artist One-Stop 54422
CD 2004. Mingus Big Band, I Am Thee, Sunnyside 3029
CD 2004. Jaleel Shaw, Perspective, Fresh Sound 222
CD 2004. Rob Schneiderman, Back In Town, Reservoir 178
CD 2004. John Blake, The Traveller, autoproduit
CD 2005. Monday Michiru, Routes, Geneon 1048
CD 2006. Mingus Big Band, Live in Tokyo at the Blue Note, Sue Mingus
Music 3042
CD 2006. George Colligan, Blood Pressure, Ultimatum 619922
CD 2006. Russell Malone, Live at Jazz Standard (Volume One), Max Jazz
602
CD 2007. Omer Avital, Arrival, Fresh Sound World Jazz 035
CD 2007. Tom Harrell, Light On, HighNote 7171
CD 2008. Jaleel Shaw, Optimism, Changu Records 43987
CD 2008. Wayne Escoffery & Veneration, Hopes & Dreams, Savant
Records 2090
CD 2008. Paul Olenick, Contact, Fresh Sound New Talent 315
CD 2008. Jack Walrath, Ballroom, Steeplechase 120341
CD 2008. Donny McCaslin, Recommended Tools, Greenleaf Music
8698001008
CD 2008. Hans Glawischnig, Panorama, Sunnyside 1179
CD 2008. Oliver Lake Organ Trio, Makin' It, Passin' Thru Records
41225
CD 2008. Joe Locke, Force of Four, Origin Records 82511
CD 2009. Ronnie Cuber, Ronnie, Steeplechase 31680
CD 2009. Alex Sipiagin, Mirages, Criss Cross Jazz 1311
CD 2010. Tom Harrell, Roman Nights, HighNote 7207
CD 2010. Michael Janisch, Purpose Built, Whirlwind Recordings 4613
CD 2010. Oliver Lake Organ Quartet, Plan, Passin' Thru Records 41226
CD 2011. Tom Harrell, The Time of the Sun, HighNote 757222
CD 2011. Benjamin Koppel, Brooklyn Jazz Session, Cowbell Music 61
CD 2012. Ronnie Cuber, Boplicity, Steeplechase 31734
CD 2012. Tom Harrell, Number Five, HighNote 7236
CD 2012. Marianne Solivan, Prisoner of Love, Hipnotic Records
5637921808
CD 2013. Tom Harrell, Colors of a Dream, HighNote 7254
Vidéos
Kenny Barron (p), Johnathan Blake (dm)
Ravi Coltrane Quartet, « Coincide », Live à Jazzdor Festival, Offenburg (Germany, 2012)
Ravi Coltrane (ts), David Virelles (p), Dezron Douglas (b), Johnathan Blake (dm)
Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio, « Beehive », « My Favourite Things », Live at Porgy & Bess, Vienne (Autria, 2013)
Dr. Lonnie Smith (org), Jonathan Kreisberg (g), Johnathan Blake (dm)Johnathan Blake: The Ultimate Modernist
Drummer Johnathan Blake tackles Robert Glasper's "Canvas," and in the process gives it a renewed sheen. Emra Islek
Monday's Pick
Song: "Canvas"
Artist: Johnathan Blake
CD: The Eleventh Hour
Genre: Jazz
Johnathan Blake is the ultimate modernist. As a drummer, he's as comfortable steering ensembles led by jazz veterans such as trumpeter Tom Harrell and saxophonist Oliver Lake as he is providing the pulse beneath rapper Q-Tip and deep-house diva Monday Michiru. Old-school strategies, though, still seep into Blake's music, as illustrated by the fetching "Canvas."
Celebrated jazz pianist Robert Glasper wrote the tune. With Blake giving it a renewed sheen, it echoes that fertile period in jazz when luminaries frequently played original compositions of their contemporaries. For its 2005 incarnation, Glasper recorded the composition in a quartet format, with tenor saxophonist Mark Turner making a guest appearance.
Turner appears in this version, too, joining the thickened frontline horn section with alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw and harmonica player Grégoire Maret. Not coincidentally, Glasper holds down the piano chair once again, while Blake drives the momentum alongside bassist Ben Street.
From just one listen, you can hear why Blake chose "Canvas." It comes with a catchy melody and enough harmonic cushioning to inspire numerous stylistic variations. And, while Glasper's improvisational repartee with Maret gets most of the spotlight here, toward the end — when Blake's snappy drumming becomes more pronounced — it shows why "Canvas" is a great vehicle for adventurous rhythm makers, as well.
AUDIO: <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/150696852/149409692" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"></iframe>
https://www.johnathanblake.com/projects-my-life-matters
MY LIFE MATTERS
The group features Blake on drums, Dayna Stephens on saxophones / EWI, Joel Ross on vibraphone, Fabian Almazan on piano, and Rashaan Carter on bass.
“Around the time I started composing one of the pieces, a lot of brutality was happening to young African-American men and women. As a person of color, I thought, ‘Man, maybe I’m not speaking out enough, as my parents stressed for me to do.’ I started thinking about the ones who came before me, who spoke through their music. Max Roach with his “Freedom Now” suite, John Coltrane with “Alabama.” I asked myself, ‘How can I speak out through my music?’ That’s where the title comes about, “My Life Matters.” It’s not just about Black Lives Matter, it’s about us as a whole. We have to learn how to coexist. We spend so much time worrying about ourselves that we can forget to care about others, notice our differences and similarities. We all were created here to live in harmony with one another. These pieces will hopefully serve as a jumping point for open discussion on that.”
Johnathan Blake's My Life Matters Live @ The Jazz Gallery
555 – Johnathan Blake: Musicality is the key
Philadelphia native Johnathan Blake is no stranger to hard work and
discipline. As the son of renowned jazz violinist John Blake, Jr.,
Johnathan learned at an early age what it took to be a great musician.
His hard work has led him to gigs with luminaries of Jazz, including his
current work with the Kenny Barron/Dave Holland Trio and Maria
Schneider Orchestra.
Dubbed “the ultimate modernist” by John
Murph of NPR, Johnathan Blake pays tribute to the time-honored tradition
of Jazz while moving it forward in a progressive way that is
influencing seasoned veterans and up and comers alike.
Johnathan Blake talks about:
- Being raised knowing the importance of education and hard work
- His method of keeping himself on task and avoiding distractions
- Evaluating your weaknesses so you know what to work on
- How he motivates himself to work hard even he’s not in the mood
- His approach to practicing
- How learning more instruments (in addition to drumming) can improve your playing
- The importance of learning the melody of a song
Resources/Links mentioned:
- Contact Johnathan: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Website
- Stick Control by George Lawrence Stone
- The All American Drummer by Charley Wilcoxon
- Syncopation by Ted Reed
- The Real Book
