Ran Blake

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Ran Blake
(Photo: Brian McMillen)

Ran Blake (born April 20, 1935 in Springfield , Massachusetts ) is an American jazz pianist and third stream composer.

Live and act

While studying at Bard College (in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York ), Blake, who had grown up with 20th century classical music and black gospel singing, began working as a duo with the singer Jeanne Lee . In 1959 and 1960 he was invited by Gunther Schuller to the Lenox School of Jazz , where he studied with John Lewis , Oscar Peterson , Bill Russo and others. He also took private lessons from Mary Lou Williams and Mal Waldron .

The debut album with Jeanne Lee is considered a milestone and led to festival appearances (for example at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1962 ) and a European tour of several months in 1963. In 1968, Schuller brought Blake to the New England Conservatory , where he has been director of the 'Third Stream 'area or the Department of Contemporary Improvisation . Blake has recorded more than 30 albums under his own name, many of them as a solo pianist such as “Painted Rhythms” with his excursus on the history of the jazz piano and “Epistrophy” with Monk compositions. He always conducts his experiments in the border area between classical and jazz more radically than many of his third-stream colleagues, because he is open to the means of the modern avant-garde. From a pianistic perspective, Thelonious Monk is Blake's biggest influence.

Awards

Selection discography

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Blake, Ran
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician and composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Springfield , Massachusetts , USA