Cool samba music12/19/2023 That’s when I started using Rogerio Boccato, who brought in his sit-down hybrid kit with the cajon, pandeiro and a wonderful combination of other percussion instruments that he uses in different combinations with his hands and sticks. So I decided to make the whole thing lighter by just using a percussionist. “I realized on that gig that the drum set was just too loud and too intense for the strings to play, especially in an acoustic situation where the strings aren’t miked. I think that was my way of responding to both the pandemic and the loss of my mom.”īlake’s idea for replacing drum set with two Brazilian percussionists came after a pre-pandemic performance that his Chroma Nova septet gave at The Stone in Manhattan. And I ended up writing music that was really quite joyous. I composed all the music during the shutdown and we recorded it in the fall of that year when we were allowed to gather in groups again. So it was just a timing thing where I was fortunate to have something to distract me as the world reeled from the global pandemic. “In early 2020, I got a grant from The Canada Council for the Arts and then COVID hit. “After my mum passed away in 2018, I felt a complete collapse in ambition to release new music, and I was processing that loss for almost two years,” he explained. And while this latest project was written in response to his mother’s death, the music is often buoyant and uplifting rather than brooding and requiem-like. But I do think that Michael’s spirit is in there a little bit.”ĭance Of The Mystic Bliss follows the pattern of Blake’s previous concept albums like Kingdom Of Champa (reflections on a month-long stay in Vietnam), In The Grand Scheme Of Things (a cinematic mini-suite inspired by a trip to Zambia for Paul’s wedding) and Amore de Cosmos (rooted in his boyhood memories of British Columbia). Get that saxophone music out into the world.’ Matt connected it to a little Michael Brecker influence, even though I don’t think I imitate Michael at all in my playing. He was like, ‘Come on, people want to hear you wail, man. “He was really in my corner in terms of just believing in the music and really digging my saxophone playing. “Paul and I had really good guidance throughout the process from Matt,” Blake said. Because the whole purpose of making music is to disseminate it.”īlake came to that realization with the help of music publicist Matt Merewitz, founder and director of Fully Altered Media. But I finally got over my initial fear that it was too personal of a subject to make into a commodity. “It’s an album dedicated to our mom, a retired dancer who was also a singer, gardener and an amazing role model for us. “I was hesitant to put this record out,” Blake explained. Written and recorded before 2022’s Combobulate on Newvelle, it almost didn’t come to fruition. His latest release, Dance Of The Mystic Bliss, is his debut on P&M Records, the label he formed in December 2021 with his older brother Paul.Ī striking septet recording for violin, cello, bass, guitar, saxophones and flute and featuring dual Brazilian percussionists in Rogerio Boccato and Mauro Refosco, Dance Of The Mystic Bliss is dedicated to Blake’s mother, Merle, who passed away in 2018. Over the course of four decades, from his early-’90s stint with the Lounge Lizards, subsequent recordings with the Herbie Nichols Project and Ben Allison & Medicine Wheel to his numerous recordings as a leader - from 1997’s Kingdom Of Champa, 2001’s Drift, 2002’s Elevated and 2005’s Right Before Your Eyes to 2014’s Tiddy Boom, 2016’s Fulfillment and 2022’s Combobulate - saxophonist-composer Michael Blake has been associated with a myriad of labels, including Intuition, Knitting Factory Works, Clean Feed, Stunt, Songlines, Sunnyside and Newvelle. Michael Blake’s Chroma Nova, from left, Guilherme Monteiro, Skye Steele, Michael Bates, Mauro Refosco, Michael Blake, Christopher Hoffman and Rogerio Boccato.
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