Ron Blake

Ron Blake (born September 7, 1965 in Saint Thomas ) is an American jazz musician ( saxophone , composition).

Live and act

Blake first learned to play the guitar; the music of Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane brought him to tenor and soprano saxophone as a student at the age of ten , but it was not until the music of Gary Bartz that he came to jazz in the late 1980s. He took part in the National Music Camp between 1979 and 1981 and attended the Interlochen Arts Academy 1980-1982, to then study at Northwestern University .

Blake worked with Bobby Broom , Roland Hanna , Bobby Hutcherson , the Clark Terry / Louie Bellson Big Band, and Nancy Wilson . He first taught as an assistant professor in jazz singing at the University of South Florida before moving to New York in 1992. There he became a member of Roy Hargrove's band for five years , with whom he toured several times in Japan, and then worked for several years in the Art Farmers group. Then he played in the band on the television show Saturday Night Live . He is also part of Dion Parson's 21st Century Band and Christian McBride's big band , with which he received a Grammy . Between 1993 and 2016 he was involved in 86 recordings in the field of jazz, including for Gerald Wilson and Kip Hanrahan ; but he also worked as a studio musician for Yerba Buena , Ry Cooder , Ziggy Marley and David Byrne . In 2019 he is a member of the Lucas Pino Nonet.

His compositions like Of Kindred Souls are interpreted by Roy Hargrove as well as by Regina Carter . He teaches as a professor at the Juilliard School .

Discographic notes

• Shayari , Mac Avenue , 2008
• Sonic Tonic Mac Avenue, 2005
• Read We Forget , Mac Avenue, 2003
• Ron Blake Quartet Up Front and Personal Tahmun , 2000, with Johnny Griffin

Web links

• Web presence
• Ron Blake at Allmusic (English)
• Ron Blake at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ biography (Julius Keilwerth)
2. ↑ Tom Lord Jazz Discography