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John Blake
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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Fit As A Fiddle: How the Violin Helped Shape Jazz, Part 2
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 ...
read moreJohn Blake Jr.: Motherless Child
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 ...
read moreJohn Blake: The Traveler
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 ...
read moreSaying 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 ...
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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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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 ...
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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, ...
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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 ...
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