Seamus Blake

Seamus Blake
Blake in 2012
Background information
Born	(1970-12-08) December 8, 1970 (age 54) London, England
Origin	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Genres	Jazz
Occupation	Musician
Instruments	Saxophone EWI
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Criss Cross
Website	seamusblake.com

Seamus Blake performing with Aarhus Jazz Orchestra in Aarhus, Denmark, 2017

Seamus Blake (born December 8, 1970) is a British-born Canadian tenor saxophonist.

Early life and education

Blake was born in London, England and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His mother introduced him to jazz when he was a child and he later attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston. ^[1]

Career

Upon graduation, he moved to New York City. ^[2] In February 2002, he won the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition. ^{[3] [4] [5]} He currently plays with his own quintet (featuring David Kikoski, Lage Lund, Bill Stewart, and Matt Clohesy) and has been a regular with the Mingus Big Band as well as many other New York musicians.

In 2022 Seamus became a member of Roger Waters touring band for the This Is Not a Drill tour. Seamus is playing sax on Pink Floyd classic songs as well as Waters solo material.^{[ citation needed ]}

Discography

As leader

• The Call (Criss Cross, 1994)
• The Bloomdaddies (Criss Cross, 1996)
• Four Track Mind (Criss Cross, 1997)
• Stranger Things Have Happened (Fresh Sound, 1999)
• Sun Sol (Fresh Sound, 2000)
• Echonomics (Criss Cross, 2001)
• Live Au Cabaret (Effendi, 2001)
• Way Out Willy (Criss Cross, 2007)
• Live in Italy (Jazz Eyes 2008)
• Bellwether (Criss Cross, 2009)
• Live at Smalls (SmallsLIVE, 2010)
• As You Like with BANN (Jazz Eyes 2010)
• Superconductor (5Passion 2015)
• Reeds Ramble with Chris Cheek (Criss Cross, 2014)
• Let's Call the Whole Thing Off with Chris Cheek (Criss Cross, 2016)
• Guardians of the Heart Machine (Whirlwind, 2019)

With Opus 5

• Introducing Opus 5 (Criss Cross, 2011)
• Pentasonic (Criss Cross, 2012)
• Progression (Criss Cross, 2014)
• Tickle (Criss Cross, 2015)
• Swing On This (Criss Cross, 2022)

As sideman

With Lea DeLaria

• Play It Cool (Warner Bros., 2001)
• Double Standards (Telarc, 2003)
• House of David (Ghostlight, 2015)
• The Live (Smoke Sessions, 2008)

With David Kikoski

• The Maze (Criss Cross, 1999)
• Combinations (Criss Cross, 2001)
• The Five (DIW, 2002)
• Limits (Criss Cross, 2006)

With Victor Lewis

• Eeeyyess! (Enja, 1997)
• Know It Today, Know It Tomorrow (Red Record, 1993)
• Three Way Conversations (Red Record, 1997)

With Monday Michiru

• Episodes in Color (SAR, 2002)
• Don't Disturb This Groove (Grand Gallery, 2011)
• Brasilified (Billboard, 2013)

With Mingus Big Band

• Blues & Politics (Dreyfus, 1999)
• I Am Three (Sunnyside/Sue Mingus, 2005)
• Live in Time (Dreyfus, 1996)
• Live in Tokyo (Sunnyside/Sue Mingus, 2006)
• Que Viva Mingus! (Dreyfus, 1997)
• Tonight at Noon... Three or Four Shades of Love (Dreyfus, 2002)

With Eric Reed

• The Baddest Monk (Savant, 2012)
• Groovewise (Smoke Sessions, 2014)
• The Adventurous Monk (Savant, 2014)

With Alex Sipiagin

• Mirrors (Criss Cross, 2003)
• Returning (Criss Cross, 2005)
• Mirages (Criss Cross, 2009)
• Live at Smalls (SmallsLIVE, 2013)
• From Reality and Back (5Passion 2013)

With others

• Franco Ambrosetti, Live at the Blue Note (Enja, 1993)
• Diego Barber, 411 (Origin, 2013)
• Ronnie Blake, Assimilation (Hi Speed Horns, 2017)
• Erin Bode, Over and Over (Maxjazz, 2006)
• Monika Borzym, Girl Talk (Sony, 2011)
• Robi Botos, Movin' Forward (A440, 2015)
• Brazilian Girls, Brazilian Girls (Verve Forecast, 2005)
• Brazilian Girls, Lazy Lover (Verve Forecast, 2004)
• Dave Douglas, Freak In (Bluebird, 2002)
• Billy Drummond, The Gift (Criss Cross, 1994)
• Fleurine, Fire (Coast to Coast 2002)
• Sara Gazarek, Return to You (Native Language, 2007)
• Wycliffe Gordon, Dig This! (Criss Cross, 2002)
• Wycliffe Gordon, United Soul Experience (Criss Cross, 2002)
• Danny Grissett, Form (Criss Cross, 2009)
• George Gruntz, Sins'n Wins'n Funs' Left-cores and Hard-core En-cores (TCB, 1996)
• Kevin Hays, Go Round (Blue Note, 1995)
• David Hazeltine, For All We Know (Smoke Sessions, 2014)
• Conrad Herwig, Unseen Universe (Criss Cross, 2000)
• Conrad Herwig, Obligation (Criss Cross, 2005)
• Scott Kinsey, No Sleep (Kinesthetic Music, 2017)
• Jane Monheit, The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me (Concord, 2008)
• Josh Nelson, Let It Go (Omagatoki, 2007)
• Robert Sadin, Art of Love: Music of Machaut (Deutsche Grammophon, 2009)
• Antonio Sanchez, The Meridian Suite (CAM Jazz, 2015) ^[6]
• Ken Schaphorst, Purple (Naxos, 1998)
• John Stetch, Carpatian Blues (Terra Nova, 1996)
• Bill Stewart, Telepathy (Blue Note, 1997)
• Bill Stewart, Space Squid (Pirouet, 2015) ^[7]
• Helen Sung, Going Express (Sunnyside, 2011)
• Mark Turner, Yam Yam (Criss Cross, 1995)
• Manuel Valera, Forma Nueva (Mavo, 2004)
• Jesse van Ruller, Circles (Criss Cross, 2003)
• Jesse van Ruller, Views (Criss Cross, 2006)
• Sam Yahel, Jazz Side of the Moon (Chesky, 2008)
• Peter Zak, One Mind (Fresh Sound, 2018)
• Mark Zubek, Twentytwodollarfishlunch (Fresh Sound, 2009)
• Dan Costa (Composer), Skyness (Independent, 2020)
• Joel Haynes, The Return (Cellar Music 2023)

References

1. Janus, Cicily (2010). The New Face of Jazz. Billboard Books. p. 32. ISBN   978-0-8230-0065-4.
2. Miller, Mark. The Miller Compendium to Jazz in Canada. The Mercury Press. pp. 21–23.
3. Murphy, Sean. "A Conversation with Seamus Blake". JazzEd Magazine. Archived from the original (HMTL) on 19 October 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
4. "Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz". Archived from the original on 3 February 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
5. Ratliff, Ben (26 February 2011). "ARTS IN AMERICA; No Nightclub, Just Saxophones, Artfully Competing". The New York Times.
6. Chinen, Nate (8 June 2015). "Review: Antonio Sánchez With 2 Albums, 'The Meridian Suite' and 'Three Times Three'". New York Times. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
7. BILAWSKY, Dan (8 January 2016). "Bill Stewart: Space Squid". All About Jazz. Retrieved 30 March 2017.