John Blake, Jr. is arguably the one person most responsible for putting the jazz violin on the map. A native of Philadelphia, he began studying violin in elementary school, continued his studies at the Settlement Music School in that city, and received a full scholarship to West Virginia University, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1969. He also studied at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Montreux, Switzerland and was awarded a grant to study East Indian music in the early seventies.
John Blake, Jr. first gained international recognition in the mid-seventies as a sideman for the Grover Washington, Jr. Band. The group was one of the first to successfully cross over from jazz to rhythm and blues, with John Blake’s violin playing a major role in that success. In 1975 he composed the score and performed in the full length ballet A City Called Heaven with the
Arthur Hall Afro-American Dance Ensemble. He also spent five years with McCoy Tyner’s band, strengthening his skills in improvisation and firmly establishing himself among the top jazz violinists of his generation.
John Blake is a member of the faculty of both the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and the Manhattan School of Music in New York. A musician’s musician, he is also active as a visiting artist, presenting solo lectures and workshops, working in duets and trios, quartets and quintets. With his sister Charlotte Blake Alston, Mr. Blake presents a delightful program of jazz and storytelling for all ages, featuring the story How Raccoon got his Dinner. With Susuki violin teacher Jody Harmon, Mr. Blake is co-author of JIME: Jazz Violin Made Easy, a book with an accompanying tape now being used in the Philadelphia school system and receiving rave reviews throughout the string community.
"As a composer and arranger, he has a strong personal vision," writes Jim Roberts in Down Beat. "Blake is an unabashed melodist, although certainly not a sentimental one." The John Blake, Jr. Quartet features Sumi Tonooka on piano, Leon Jordan on drums, and Chico Huff on bass. The John Blake Jr. All-star Quintet features the musicians of the Quest recording, Joey Calderazzo on piano, Joe Ford on saxophone, Charles Fambrough on bass, and the legendary Ben Riley on drums.
Mr. Blake also works as a duo with any one of several musicians, including Henry Butler, Joey Calderazzo, Avery Sharpe, Victor Gaskins, and Dave Holland. With Philadelphia’s legendary music man Odean Pope, Mr. Blake is co-directing the music for And the Children Danced, a one-hour television special about the thirty year history of the Arthur Hall Afro-American Dance Ensemble. Over the years, he has performed as a guest artist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the McCoy Tyner Trio, the Billy Taylor Trio, and the Turtle Island String Quartet.
John Blake, Jr.
