Michael Blake - In the Grand Scheme of Things (Songlines 2012)

"Michael Blake is one of an all-too-common subset of the jazz community: players who create brilliant music while flying largely under the radar of widespread critical and/or popular acclaim....Like most of Blake's projects, this one is as good as it is different from his last." - Chris Kelsey, Jazz Times (reviewing Amor de Cosmos)

Amor de Cosmos (Songlines, 2007) was Michael Blake's first record created for a Canadian group - although he's from Vancouver originally he's lived and built his career in New York over the last 25 years. His new Variety Hour quartet retains dexterous Vancouver keyboardist Chris Gestrin and masterful, internationally acclaimed drummer Dylan van der Schyff while adding the idiosyncratic JP Carter (Inhabitants, Fond of Tigers, Destroyer, Dan Mangan) on trumpet and electronics. All three are equally adept in relatively straight-ahead to totally free contexts. They have an intuitive connection from many years' playing in various bands, and they take Blake's music to unexpected places. Says Michael: "I feel very comfortable with these musicians. It's in the way they leave space, suggest motives with the simplest of gestures and listen to each other. I feel at home and I'm embracing that."
Michael Blake, tenor saxophone; JP Carter, trumpet & electronics; Chris Gestrin, Fender Rhodes electric piano & Moog Micromoog synthesizer; Dylan van der Schyff, drums
Songlines
For more info: www.michaelblake.net, www.chrisgestrin.com.

Road to Lusaka
The Variety Hour
Cybermonk
Willie (The Lonely Cowboy)
The Searchers
Big Smile
In the Grand Scheme of Things : A View of Oblivion
In the Grand Scheme of Things : Freedom from Exile
In the Grand Scheme of Things : Cordiale Drive
Treat Her Right
Serenity Lodge
Esoterica (Digital Bonus Track)