Dan Blake

Multi-instrumentalist, contemporary composer, performer and educator

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Dan Blake has developed a wide-ranging career as a contemporary composer, performer and educator that “regards tradition as a welcoming playground best approached with a sense of wonder and adventure” (The Boston Globe). Blake’s music has been called “stunning” (All About Jazz), and his most recent release “The Digging” was described as “a creative essay on what can be done in the trio format” (Ottawa Citizen). In addition to his work as a leader, he has toured and recorded with three-time Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding, NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton, and Velvet Underground founding member John Cale, among many others. In his extended multi-disciplinary compositions, Blake weaves together his interests in world music, contemporary improvisation, animation, and performance art. This genre-bending catalog of works has earned him support from the Jerome Fund for New Music, ASCAP, and New Music USA. A musician keenly interested in bringing music together with social justice causes, Dan Blake produces the annual Concert To Feed The Hungry, a fundraising event celebrating the struggle to end hunger and malnutrition in poor communities around the world. He holds a Ph.D. in composition from the City University of New York and is currently on faculty at the New School for Social Research, and at the Conservatory at Brooklyn College.

Awarded 2022 NYFA Fellow!

I am thrilled to have been awarded the 2022 New York State Council On the Arts Fellowship in music! Can’t wait to put these award funds to good use this year – look out for new projects on the way!

Read more about this prestigious award here

Got My Wings

Looking ahead to the Jan. 22 premier of Got My Wings, here is a new promo featuring the break dancer James Jandrok!

see http://www.bethanyarts.org/got-my-wings for more details and reservations!

I’m Moving to a Coop Platform!

https://www.ampled.com/artist/danblake

I’m thrilled to announce that my new music will now be posted and streamable at Ampled, a cooperative platform designed and owned by and for musicians! For as low as $3/month you’ll get at least 2-3 subscriber-only tracks, videos and other new content I’m working on or that has never before been released. I hope you’ll join me there on this new journey toward reimagining this ailing music industry! Consider it the price of buying me a cup of coffee, which will just ensure I’ve got enough “zip” to keep creating for you all 🙂

https://www.ampled.com/artist/danblake

Check out Ampled @ampl3d!!

New Sunnyside Album!

“One of the most relevant and musically rich albums of 2021 in any style of music.” – Alan Young

I’m thrilled to announce my fourth album as a bandleader – now out on Sunnyside Records!

Release concert March 26 at Soapbox Gallery! Read a recent rave review at All About Jazz here

March 26 we will host an album release livestream at the Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn, NY!

More info HERE

 

New Release! Robert Dick & Dan Blake (Chant Records)

I’m very happy to be a part of this new release with the legendary flutist and composer Robert Dick.

Artwork by Sabina Hahn, and click the link above to read the notes by renowned journalist Allan Kozinn!