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Michael Blake Sextet
Biography
Jazz saxophonist Michael Blake was a member of the the Lounge Lizards from 1990 on, and kept active in a variety of other N.Y.C.-based creative jazz projects. After he was born in Montreal in 1964, his family moved to California for a short time, then settled back in Canada, in Vancouver, BC. While young, Blake attempted learning the violin and piano, but ended up taking to the clarinet. By high school, he was playing tenor saxophone and participating in a variety of performances, festivals, and workshops. At the age of 18, Blake studied harmony at a community college and began working professionally in various lineups. He began getting acquainted with the Vancouver scene after his first year in college, and got to know some of the creative players and composers there. In 1984, he took part in the Banff Jazz Workshop, where he met Cecil Taylor, Kenny Wheeler, Steve Coleman, and more. Blake returned to Banff the next summer, and afterward, received a Canada Council grant to live and study in N.Y.C. He returned to Vancouver at the end of his year away, and led his own quartet which competed at the Alcan Jazz Competition, greatly impressing the judges, but got disqualified on a technicality. So, at the age of 23, Blake returned to N.
Selected Discography