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John Blake

John Blake, Jr. has been one of the world’s leading jazz violinists for over four decades. A four-time winner of the Down Beat Critics’ Poll Violinist Deserving Wider Recognition category he was also one of the top two jazz violinists in the 49th, 50th, and 51st Down Beat Readers’ Poll, Classically trained, Blake first gained recognition on early-'70s recordings he made with Archie Shepp and in the mid-70s became established with a global audience during three years recording and touring as a member of Grover Washington, Jr.’s popular “crossover” jazz band. He then spent five years working extensively as a member of various ensembles led by pianist McCoy. Among other artists with whom Blake has performed and/or recorded with are the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Turtle Island String Quartet, Quartet Indigo, the Steve Turre Sextet, the Billy Taylor Trio, Avery Sharpe, Cecil McBee, Jay Hoggard and James Newton. Blake released his recording debut as a leader and composer, Maiden Dance, in 1984, the first of five well-received projects on Gramavision Records including one that teamed him up with fellow jazz violinists Michal Urbaniak and Didier Lockwood. He released his sixth album, Quest that reunited him with Grover Washington and featured Joe Ford, Charles Fambrough, Ben Riley, Omar Hill, Joey Calderazzo, on Sunnyside Records 1992. Blake’s first recording with his current quartet, The Traveler, was released in 2007.

Born in Philadelphia on July 3, 1947, Blake began studying violin in that city’s public school system and at the Settlement Music School. After graduating from West Virginia University he did postgraduate work at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Montreux, Switzerland and received a grant to study studied East Indian music. In addition to his work as an instrumentalist performing with his quartet and as a featured guest soloist at concerts and on studio sessions, Blake is also an accomplished composer, arranger and producer as well as an author, teacher and lecturer who presents hundreds of workshops annually to musicians at all levels. He co-wrote with Suzuki educator Jody Harmon J.I.M.E., the definitive beginning string jazz method book and CD in use around the world. In addition to lecturing on campuses throughout the US, Blake is on the faculty of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, and has been a guest lecturer at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2004 he was appointed to the Basler Chair of Excellence for the winter semester at East Tennessee State University and that year also was awarded a Chamber Music America Jazz Composer Grant.

Awards

A four-time winner of the Down Beat Critics’ Poll Violinist Deserving Wider Recognition category he was also one of the top two jazz violinists in the 49th, 50th, and 51st Down Beat Readers’ Poll


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10
The Jazz Life

Fit As A Fiddle: How the Violin Helped Shape Jazz, Part 2

Read "Fit As A Fiddle: How the Violin Helped Shape Jazz, Part 2" reviewed by Peter Rubie


Part 1 | Part 2 This is Now I hate to confess this, but I've never been that keen on Stephane Grappelli's playing, as masterful and brilliant as he assuredly was. ("He plays with an accent," violinist and Berklee professor Rob Thomas confided to me when I hesitantly mentioned this to him. What Rob meant was that Stephane used a lot more vibrato than most other jazz violinists.) “It was that gypsy, slightly classical style," Detroit-born ...

490
Album Review

John Blake Jr.: Motherless Child

Read "Motherless Child" reviewed by Mark F. Turner


The precursor to the blues as a music form was first heard in the chants and songs of African American slaves. Their lyrics of hardship, perseverance, and faith were expressed through work songs, hymns, and spirituals, some of which are beautifully interpreted on John Blake Jr.'s Motherless Child.

Growing up in South Philadelphia, Blake had this influence placed within him at an early age through his exposure to church services. His mother played piano and organ, and together with the ...

128
Album Review

John Blake: The Traveler

Read "The Traveler" reviewed by Mark Sabbatini


Violinist John Blake lists smooth jazz guru Grover Washington Jr. and John Coltrane alumnus McCoy Tyner as his first two major stints as a sideman. So he's well-suited to perform that sometimes awkward splice between popular and challenging. On The Traveler, the first self-produced and self-financed album of Blake's lengthy career, he opts for an acoustic quartet that's more mainstream than some recent releases dabbling in funk and electronics. There remains a contemporary feel on what proves to be a ...

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8

Award / Grant

Saying Goodbye to John Blake Jr.

Saying Goodbye to John Blake Jr.

Source: Michael Ricci

By Suzanne Cloud Sharon Baptist Church boasts a congregation that harkens back to 1934, many years before the church finally found an expansive resting space in West jny: Philadelphia. It's a very big church, but John’s family and friends needed a big one to say goodbye and to wish him well on his journey home. John Blake Jr. was an accomplished musician who started early in his life loving sound, thanks to his mother, a pianist herself. But what he ...

1

Obituary

John Blake, Jr., RIP

John Blake, Jr., RIP

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

From jny: Philadelphia comes news of the death of John Blake, Jr., a violinist who combined his classical training, love for the African-American musical tradition and sense of adventure to become prominent on the forward edge of jazz in the 1970s. Blake was 67. He made his mark recording with tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp and soon won the Violinist Deserving Wider Recognition category in the Down Beat Critics Poll. His fame widened when he toured with Grover Washington, Jr’s band ...

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Performance / Tour

Violinist John Blake in Media on January 18th

Violinist John Blake in Media on January 18th

Source: Jim Miller

Appearing at Jazz in Media! at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 145 W. Rose Tree Road in Media PA, on January 18th, 2012 will be jazz violinist John Blake Jr. with his band. One Show: 7:30-9 p.m. $10/$5 students. No advance sales. For info: 610-745-3011. Free refreshments and free on-site parking. John Blake, Jr. has been one of the world's leading jazz violinists for over four decades. A four-time winner of the DownBeat Critics' Poll Violinist Deserving Wider Recognition category, he ...

194

Event

We Remember Wilby Fletcher, Jr. "A Celebration of the Life & Music of Wilby Jr."

We Remember Wilby Fletcher, Jr. "A Celebration of the Life & Music of Wilby Jr."

Source: Michael Ricci

Join us to pay tribute to Wilmington musical legend, Wilbert “Wilby" Fletcher, Jr. The program, coordinated by the Fletcher family in partnership with CCAC, celebrates the life of this extraordinary drummer and features music, dance, photography and spoken word performances.

Musicians who have collaborated with Fletcher will also perform, including Philly's own violinist John Blake, Jr., pianist Barry Sames, the Alfie Moss/Dexter Koonce Project, Lonnie-Liston Smith, Sid Simmons, Doc Gibbs, John Swana, Sonny Fortune, Onaje Allen Gumbs, William “Spaceman" Paterson, ...

104

Event

John Blake, Jr. Ensemble Joins Grammy Winning Fiddler Mark O'Connor & His Appalachia Waltz Trio

John Blake, Jr. Ensemble Joins Grammy Winning Fiddler Mark O'Connor & His Appalachia Waltz Trio

Source: Laura Henrich

“Triple-threat O'Connor is a jazz artist, a respected classical/ folk composer and a fiddler who performs chamber-music Americana" --The Seattle Times

“Mr. Blake rides those vamps like a master. He also knows how to pace a solo so that it builds to crest after crest, with an oratorical sense of timing" The New York Times

Philadelphia, Pa--Musicopia, formerly known as Strings for Schools, announces an innovative collaboration between the Appalachia Waltz Trio featuring virtuoso fiddler Mark ...

Throughout his career, John Blake has veered back and forth between R&B-ish sets and more adventurous dates. A pleasing if not overly distinctive violinist, the versatile Blake has played in a wide variety of settings. After advanced classical study, he first gained recognition for his early-'70s recordings with Archie Shepp. During the next decade, Blake recorded with McCoy Tyner, James Newton, Cecil McBee, Jay Hoggard, and Grover Washington, Jr., touring extensively with Tyner and Washington. He made a series of generally interesting, if diverse, sets for Gramavision in the 1980s (including a fascinating 1986 date with fellow violinists Michal Urbaniak and Didier Lockwood) and one CD for Sunnyside in 1992, showing a lot of potential

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Motherless Child

ARC - Artists Recording Collective
2010

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The Traveler

ItsAboutMusic.com
2005

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A New Beginning

Challenge Jazz
1988

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Adventures Of The...

Challenge Jazz
1987

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Rhythm & BLU

Challenge Jazz
1986

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Twinkling Of An Eye

Challenge Jazz
1985

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