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Ryan Blotnick

Ryan Blotnick has been called “a vital contemporary voice” by Time Out New York, “an authentic, compelling player” by Cadence Magazine, and has garnered praise from fellow guitarists John Abercrombie, Steve Cardenas and Ben Monder. As part of one of the last generations to study with 1960s era masters like Gene Bertoncini, Harold Mabern, Yusef Lateef, Billy Taylor and Andrew Cyrille, Blotnick developed a deep respect for the post-bop and free-jazz traditions, while simultaneously being exposed to current directions in European and American improvisation. His interest in creative composition has led him to work with artists such as Michael Blake, Pete Robbins, Bill McHenry, Mat Maneri, and Tyshawn Sorey, who have each carved out their own niche at the forefront of modern jazz. His own compositions draw on an eclectic mix of genres and display a rich understanding of harmony and lyricism. His latest release Kush (2016) mines a bittersweet melodic/harmonic vein balanced by an African-influenced rhythmic elan. Conceived as an antidote to the more aggressive forms of New York jazz, Kush offers freshly-minted waltzes, haunting ballads and more than a touch of Frisellian Americana, as well as a variety of grooves combining jazz and African feels.

Ryan Blotnick (born April 30, 1983) is professional musician living in Southwest Harbor, Maine. He grew up in Kennebunkport, Maine and became interested in jazz after being exposed to musicians like Gregory Tardy and George Garzone at Maine Jazz Camp. In high school he was in the All-State Jazz Combo and won the Corning Jazz Prize with his trio. At William Paterson University he studied with Gene Bertoncini and Paul Meyers, and played with classmates such as Mark Guiliana and Sam Barsh.

Ryan Blotnick first appeared in New York in 2004 as a ‘reverse exchange student’ from the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, becoming one of the first Americans to complete the Musician/Soloist Graduate Program, together with Ned Ferm. His association with the Danish Conservatory between 2002 and 2006 allowed him to form relationships with some very unique European musicians, and study with Steve Cardenas, Lionel Loueke, Ben Street and Lee Konitz in New York and with Jakob Bro and Bjarne Roupé in Denmark. His collaborative group Ugly Customer won the Danish Young Jazz Competition and performed at the Stockholm Jazz Festival and Copenhagen Jazzhouse. As part of the large ensemble Forkert, he played at the Nordischer Klang Festival in Greifswald, Germany and around Denmark. His projects for school involved large ensemble compositions and recordings with some of the big names in Danish jazz today, such as Kresten Osgood, Kasper Tranberg and Jonas Westergaard.

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Album Review

Ryan Blotnick: Solo, Volume I

Read "Solo, Volume I" reviewed by Mario Calvitti


Dopo due album a suo nome registrati con formazioni variabili (trio, quartetto, quintetto), il giovane chitarrista Ryan Blotnick (classe 1983) ha sentito il bisogno di ritrovare una dimensione più intimista, dedicandosi intensamente alla pratica del solo, allo stesso tempo ritornando nel nativo Maine dopo alcuni anni trascorsi a New York. Ne scaturisce un lavoro delicato e interessante, intenso pur nella sua brevità (poco meno di 34 minuti), ricco di spunti e stimoli in un approccio strumentale alla chitarra che riesce ...

3
Album Review

Ryan Blotnick: Solo, Volume I

Read "Solo, Volume I" reviewed by Matt Marshall


Solo, Volume I finds guitarist Ryan Blotnick returning to his roots. Not only has he scaled back to his bare, musical minimum--a man and his guitar--but he's also relocated from New York City to the Amherst/Northampton area of Massachusetts, all in an attempt to get closer to the life and music he knew growing up in Maine. The idea was simple: armed with his 1959 Martin 00-18, outfitted with a single coil pickup, he'd fashion a personal, acoustic/electric music not ...

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Extended Analysis

Ryan Blotnick: Everything Forgets

Read "Ryan Blotnick: Everything Forgets" reviewed by Martin Gladu


Ryan Blotnick Everything Forgets Songlines 2009

While there are no fast rules or proven paths for developing a craft and career as an improvising musician, most players arrive at free playing and pure expression in the course of their development rather than starting their careers there. In other words, the artistic process leads more commonly to abstraction than it leads to formalism. (This can also be observed in the visual arts, with ...

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Album Review

Ryan Blotnick: Everything Forgets

Read "Everything Forgets" reviewed by Wilbur MacKenzie


Guitarist Ryan Blotnick has been intermittently active in New York for years now, but since the release of his debut recording as a leader, Music Needs You, his activities have taken him throughout the world, with his own groups and also with Michael Blake, Pete Robbins and Kresten Osgood. Blotnick's second record, Everything Forgets, travels through a wide array of textures, moods and atmospheres, at one moment careening through a dense cloud of rhythms, then gliding through ...

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Album Review

Ryan Blotnick: Music Needs You

Read "Music Needs You" reviewed by Marcia Hillman


Guitarist Ryan Blotnick is on a journey of exploration on this, his first CD. All of the compositions are his originals with one exception--a ballad by alto saxophonist Pete Robbins. Blotnick is accompanied on this journey by Robbins as well as Albert Sanz (piano), Perry Wortman (bass) and Joe Smith (drums), a quintet that was assembled for a tour last year and is well-attuned to each other. There is a chamber feel to this CD because of ...

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Album Review

Ryan Blotnick: Music Needs You

Read "Music Needs You" reviewed by Martin Gladu


As Jack Kerouac's call for a “rucksack revolution" enticed America's youth to discover themselves and the world through rallies and road trips, musicians, for their part, have found taking the road at the same time an uprooting obligation and liberating transience. After all, as the proverb goes, travels do broaden the mind.A young globe-trotter in his own right at twenty-four, guitarist/composer Ryan Blotnick's enviable travelogue has prompted him to precociously abandon his studies at New Jersey's William Paterson's ...

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Recording

Guitarist Ryan Blotnick Releases New Album, The Officical Score For The Netflix Documentary, Knock Down The House

Guitarist Ryan Blotnick Releases New Album, The Officical Score For The Netflix Documentary, Knock Down The House

Source: GoMedia PR

Remixed tracks feature members of Grizzly Bear, Glass Ghost, The Band's Visit, and Lou Reed's former musical director Jane Scarpantoni Guitarist Ryan Blotnick’s work has been widely praised by critics, from Nate Chinen of the NY Times, who said of his 2012 Release, Solo, Volume 1, “He's not afraid of starkness or silence, and he knows how to spin a good yarn. He’s a natural...” to Time Out New York, which lauded Music Needs You (2008), saying “A record full ...

"A moody, unforced album rich in nuances... The mastery of space and tone within an improvisational setting is an art few have truly mastered; with Kush, Ryan Blotnick has shown himself to be among such rare masters" —S. Victor Aaron, Something Else Reviews

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Knock Down the House

Milan Records
2019

buy

Kush

Songlines Recordings
2016

buy

Solo, Volume I

Self Produced
2013

buy

Everything Forgets

Songlines Recordings
2009

buy

Everything Forgets

Songlines Recordings
2009

buy

Music Needs You

Songlines Recordings
2008

buy

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