Ran Blake
Ran Blake ( born April 20, 1935 in Springfield, Massachusetts) is an American jazz pianist and Third Stream composer.
Already during his studies at Bard College ( Annandale -on-Hudson, New York) Blake, who grew up with classical music of the 20th century and black gospel singing began working with singer Jeanne Lee duo. 1959 and 1960 he was invited by Gunther Schuller to the Lenox School of Jazz, where he studied with John Lewis, Oscar Peterson, Bill Russo and others. In addition, he took private lessons with Mary Lou Williams and Mal Waldron.
The debut album with Jeanne Lee is considered a landmark and led to festival appearances (for example, in 1962 at the Monterey Jazz Festival) and several months tour of Europe in 1963. In 1968 took Schuller Blake at the New England Conservatory, he has since 1973 been head of the ' Third Stream' - region or of the Department of Contemporary improvisation. Blake has recorded more than 30 albums under his own name, many of them. Than a solo pianist as "Painted Rhythms " with his excursus on the history of jazz piano and " Epistrophy " with Monk compositions He conducts his experiments at the limits of classical and jazz always more radical than many of his Third Stream colleagues, as he confronts the means of modern avant-garde open. In pianistic perspective Thelonious Monk is his greatest influence upon Blake's view.