John Blake, Jr.

John Blake, Jr. ( born July 3, 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American jazz violinist.

Life and work

Blake began as a child, playing classical violin. He studied at West Virginia University and perfected his game in Montreux and in the East Indies, where he learned to handle Indian techniques on his instrument. However, he often played in groups where simpler things were in demand, for example, in the bands of Grover Washington, Jr. (1976-1979) and McCoy Tyner (1979-1984), where he was initially known. Blake then led his own groups, but also took over in 1986 with Michal Urbaniak and Didier Lockwood an impressive album. Furthermore, he also played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, with James Newton, Tyrone Brown, Sumi Tonooka or Avery Sharpe. He also worked with the Turtle Iceland String Quartet, the Quartet Indigo and was a member of the group of Steve Turre and Billy Taylor.

He teaches at the School of Art in Philadelphia, and since 1987 at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. The drummer Johnathan Blake is his son.