25 Facts About Ran Blake

Ran Blake was born on April 20,1935 and is an American pianist, composer, and educator.

Ran Blake is known for his unique style that combines blues, gospel, classical, and film noir influences into an innovative and dark jazz sound.

Ran Blake grew up in Suffield, Connecticut, and became fascinated by film noir after seeing Robert Siodmak's Spiral Staircase as a twelve-year-old.

Ran Blake began playing piano as a young child, and as a teenager studied with Ray Cassarino.

Ran Blake studied with John Lewis, Oscar Peterson, and Gunther Schuller at the School of Jazz in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Lee and Ran Blake continued to play together throughout their careers and released another album in 1989 entitled You Stepped out of a Cloud.

Ran Blake met Gunther Schuller in a chance encounter at Atlantic Records in 1959.

Ran Blake later became a mentor and a significant influence on his work.

Later, Williams and Ran Blake worked together while she was a visiting faculty member at the School of Jazz.

In 1966, Blake released his first record as a soloist, Ran Blake Plays Solo Piano, on New York-based label ESP Disk.

In 1967, Schuller, president of the New England Conservatory, recruited Ran Blake to fill a faculty position as the Conservatory's Community Services Director.

Ran Blake remained in this role until 1973, when he took on the chairmanship of the new Third Stream Department at the New England Conservatory, an initiative he started with Schuller.

Ran Blake is a faculty member at the New England Conservatory.

Ran Blake was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition in 1982 and a MacArthur Genius Grant six years later.

Ran Blake has continued recording throughout his career as an educator and has amassed over forty recording credits on jazz albums.

In 1981, Ran Blake recorded an album of songs by, or associated with, Duke Ellington, entitled Duke Dreams, which was awarded 4.5 stars by AllMusic, and a five-star rating in Down Beat and the All Music Guide to Jazz.

Ran Blake has collaborated with a number of other musicians, including Jaki Byard, Houston Person, Steve Lacy, Clifford Jordan and Christine Correa.

Ran Blake calls his approach "the primacy of the ear".

Ran Blake wrote Third Stream and the Importance of the Ear, which served as a guide to his educational style, as well as an explanation and expansion upon the concept of Third Stream.

Ran Blake's focus on improvisation and ear training, coupled with his diverse influences, have made him one of the more innovative music educators of the jazz world.

Ran Blake invites the reader to view Third Stream composition as any composition that bridges two distinct musical cultures, not just classical-jazz fusion.

Ran Blake stresses the importance of improvisation, and cites the need for improvisational education as one of the reasons he and Schuller started the Third Stream Department at the NEC.

Ran Blake argues that music is an aural art, and it must therefore be taught not by being "preoccupied with playing Chopin preludes on the piano or the latest copy of The Real Book on the horn or guitar," but by dedicated listening, imitating, and improvising.

Ran Blake calls for students to listen and sing along to melodies on tape until they can reproduce the melody without the tape.

In 2010, Ran Blake published a book with Jason Rogers entitled The Primacy of the Ear.