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Ron Blake
Biography
A big-toned, gutsy, hard-swinging instrumentalist who is known for hard bop and soul-jazz, saxman Ron Blake should not be confused with either the '60s drummer Ronnie Blake, or the late-'90s- early-2000s trumpeter Ron Blake (a session player who has appeared in rock and R&B settings). Saxophonist Blake (who is best known for his tenor and soprano playing, but can also handle the baritone and alto saxes) can be lyrical or romantic but always brings a lot of grit to his solos; he is obviously well aware of the funkier, bluesier side of jazz and usually doesn't go out of his way to be abstract. Blake brings a long list of influences to his work, and they range from Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, to Grover Washington, Jr., Gene Ammons, and Stanley Turrentine. Blake has been compared to all of those saxmen, and some more valid comparisons include Eddie Harris, Ron Holloway, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, David "Fathead" Newman, and Robert "Bootsie" Barnes (a superb tenor man who is famous in Philadelphia but little-known in other cities). Although Blake has lived in New York City since the early '90s, he isn't a native of the Big Apple; the improviser was born in the Virgin Islands.
Selected Discography

Shayari
2008
Sonic Tonic
2005