Dan Blake

About Dan Blake

Since 2006, saxophonist and composer Dan Blake has been on the rise as a leading figure in New York City’s creative music scene. He was recently listed by the NY Jazz Record and the San Jose Mercury News as among the best jazz recording artists of 2011. His work has been featured throughout Europe, South America, and the United States with Downbeat Magazine recognizing, "Dan Blake's imprint as composer and player and bandleader demands attention." His most recently release, “The Aquarian Suite” was called by the Boston Phoenix, “One of the most ridiculously satisfying discs we’ve heard in some time.” In the words of master improviser Danilo Pérez, “He will do justice to any musical situation.”

Dan Blake is currently in demand as a saxophonist, performing regularly with the Grammy-nominated Julian Lage Group, Lukas Ligeti’s Kaleidoscope Point, Kenny Werner, Anthony Braxton, Peter Evans, and Ricardo Gallo. As a recording artist, Blake is a featured soloist on Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding’s forthcoming Radio Music Society (Heads Up), with whom he will tour throughout 2011. He is also a featured soloist on Anthony Braxton’s opera Trillium E (Tri-Centric Records), and on Grammy winner Danilo Perez’s Panama Suite (Artistshare).

Blake’s work as a composer has garnered the John Lennon Songwriting Contest’s Grand Prize, ASCAP’s Young Jazz Composer’s Award, City University’s Morton Feldman Composition Award and most recently, the prestigious Jerome Fund Commissioning Grant. Dan Blake is currently a Ph.D. candidate in composition at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and serves as adjunct lecturer in music history at The Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. He was recently awarded the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund for an ongoing research project examining New York City’s improvised music scene.