[Dixielandjazz] Is it OKOM? Yes & No

[Charles Suhor]

Yes, he's got his own thing. Be ready for surprises when you hear him. 
In the late 60s I rehearsed some jazz and poetry with him for a 
recording that never came off. But he took Eliot's "Hollow Men" and 
Frost's untypical, scary "The Hill Wife" to some wonderful 
places.--Charlie Suhor


On Feb 17, 2005, at 9:17 AM, Steve barbone wrote:

> List Mates:
>
> I saw/heard Ran Blake two years ago and was absolutely blown away by 
> his
> original renditions of familiar standards. If you ever get a chance to
> see/hear him, by all means do so. He is a one of a kind, ORIGINAL.
>
> Is it OKOM? Yes and No. But in either case definitely worth while.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> ----------------
> February 17, 2005 JAZZ REVIEW | RAN BLAKE NY TIMES
>
> A Master of the Eclectic Stroking the Familiar - By BEN RATLIFF
>
> If there is a manner of playing durable old standards that goes with 
> the
> feeling of opening night, spotlights and an alert, recently fed crowd, 
> Ran
> Blake's versions suggest how they sound later, inside your head, when 
> you're
> lying awake and bedeviled by old regrets.
>
> When Mr. Blake, a pianist, begins a song like "The Midnight Sun" or 
> "Stella
> by Starlight" or "Mood Indigo" he suggests its harmonic world with a 
> few
> powerful opening chords, revs up the sustain pedal and slips into 
> extreme
> displays of rubato and dynamics. He will assault you with one rich,
> harmonious chord, a room-filler, then chase it away with the next one, 
> a
> quiet, mildly dissonant pianissimo stab with no sustain.
>
> Mr. Blake has been teaching at the New England Conservatory since 
> 1967, in
> the department that was once called third stream - meaning the 
> intertwining
> of jazz and classical-music philosophy and pedagogy - but is now called
> contemporary improvisation. And there is a special-interest feeling to 
> what
> he does; in no way is he part of a mainstream movement within jazz. 
> (You
> couldn't even call it a niche because nobody has directly followed his
> example.) But what he does - using solo-piano technique, imagination 
> and
> memory to construct a slightly disturbing dream of American music - is
> fascinatingly original.
>
> Standards make up only a fraction of his vast repertory. On Tuesday 
> night in
> a rare appearance at Cobi's Place, a small theater in Midtown, he put 
> on a
> concert called "Homages, Misfortunes, Infamy," intermittently using a 
> small
> group of colleagues and students - a trombonist, two singers, two 
> guitarists
> and no drummer or bassist.
>
> He organized the evening into three short sets, and the program 
> included the
> three songs mentioned above, as well as some jazz pieces basically 
> known to
> deep initiates, gospel and soul songs, film music and melancholy 
> originals.
> The composer's name followed the song titles on the program, except 
> where
> Mr. Blake himself had written the piece; he indicated his authorship 
> with
> the image of a shabby black suitcase.
>
> An expansive and dark imagination, unchecked, can be wearying. But Mr. 
> Blake
> also happens to be a master of compression. At one point he played a 
> medley
> of four parts: a piano improvisation based on Gunther Schuller's own 
> 12-tone
> row; a version of the Sylvers's early 1970's soul hit "Wish I Could 
> Talk to
> You"; the theme from the film "Dr. Mabuse"; and "Stratusphunk," a 
> piece of
> modal-jazz by George Russell. Come on, give it to him: that's breadth. 
> But
> it is also just a little diary of his own interests, and he squeezed 
> the
> four pieces so tightly together that it sounded like one short song.
>
> His collaborators on Tuesday were the singers Dominique Eade and 
> Christine
> Correa, the eloquent trombonist Joel Yennior, and the guitarists Jonah 
> Kraut
> and Dave Fabris. The songs with words came out full of technique and
> expression - both these altos seem to love Sarah Vaughan - but with
> differences. Ms. Eade sang "Let's Stay Together," the Al Green hit, 
> with
> soul; Ms. Correa sang Max Roach and Chips Bayen's "Mendacity," about 
> lying
> politicians, with anger. Ms. Eade's soft delivery and Mr. Correa's 
> harsher
> one ran together like a double-exposure on Vernon Duke and Ogden Nash's
> "Roundabout."
> -------------
>
>
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