Release Speak is a new series of conversations with Soapbox host Tracey Yarad. Tracey will dig deep into the processes and history behind the making of an album and how musicians make decisions to arrive at a final destination.
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Dan Blake has led 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 he was dubbed a “virtuoso” by The New York Times for his work touring and recording both with his own projects and with luminaries of jazz and popular music like Grammy-winner Esperanza Spalding, NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton, Terry Riley, and many others. He has collaborated with new music luminaries like The Mivos Quartet, the Tri Centric Orchestra, Talea, and many others who have commissioned and recorded his works.
Due out March 12, 2021 via Sunnyside Records, Da Fé is an outgrowth of Blake’s own activism. A practicing Buddhist since his college years, Blake has served since 2015 on the board of Buddhist Global Relief, an organization dedicated to combatting chronic hunger and malnutrition around the world. He has also organized concerts to benefit other charitable organizations, including Extinction Rebellion, the Poor People’s Campaign and Show Up for Racial Justice. While he’s quick to downplay his own role in favor of those who dedicate their lives to activism, his music follows a socially conscious path blazed by the likes of Max Roach and Alice Coltrane before him.
Leo Genovese- piano/synthesizers
Dmitry Ishenko - bass
Jeff Williams - drums
BUY “Da Fe”