Biography
Cyril Blake, who sometimes billed himself as "Midnight" and regularly appeared onstage well past midnight, formed a cornerstone of England's free-spirited music world across the years preceding and following World War II. Mastery of jazz came first, followed by powerful contributions to rhythm-and-blues ensembles drawn from diverse communities, before he ultimately returned to the Trinidadian traditions that shaped his earliest years. Departure from the islands occurred near 1918, when he joined the Southern Syncopated Orchestra as one of its guitarists during the group's British engagements. Trumpet soon replaced guitar, and throughout the roaring twenties he performed in clubs across both London and Paris.
London became his primary base during the thirties, where he worked in the ensembles led by Leon Abbey, by his brother Happy Blake, and by clarinetist Rudolph Dunbar. Mid-decade found him in Leslie Thompson's Emperors of Jazz, a distinguished group, and later in Joe Appleton's band. Recognition for this circle of British jazz figures, among them Bertie King, Lauderic Caton, and Brylo Ford, arrived with the publication of John Chilton's Who's Who of British Jazz, which identified them as the nation's "all-out jazzmen," many of whom worked Soho venues such as Jig's on Wardour Street and thereby shaped subsequent generations of British players. Jig's carried a "shady" reputation, yet it attracted notable visitors; a biography of Caton records that "It was at Jig's that he ran into Fats Waller and Duke Ellington, both of whom sought his (Caton's) services." Caton in turn engaged fellow Trinidadian Blake as trumpeter in the Jig's band and began making records with him.
From 1938 onward Blake led his own groups, which clubs frequently chose as house bands. He absorbed the array of musical currents then flowing through London, delivering bright, precise solos that avoided superfluous notes. Jig's became closely identified with him, and recordings issued as Cyril Blake & His Jig's Club Band convey an almost tangible musical energy despite variable fidelity that sometimes suggests capture from a moving vehicle blocks away. Repertoire featured a spirited reading of Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard's "Frolic Sam" alongside a Jimmie Lunceford-styled treatment of "Rhythm Is Our Business." The piece "Cyril's Blues" remains memorable despite the commonplace nature of such titles. Louis Armstrong visited Jig's both to experience its atmosphere and to hear Blake play.
Early-forties sessions for Regal-Zonophone offered early hints of the polished, exotic productions that would later emerge and also showcased the Afro-Caribbean elements that grew stronger in Blake's work. For a period he directed the calypso star Lord Kitchener, an artist whose distinctive voice would have succeeded even with minimal accompaniment yet benefited greatly from Blake's ensembles. Kitchener, known to associates and studio personnel simply as "Kitch," completed his first major Parlophone sides with these units; the discs reached Trinidad with remarkable speed and sold out regardless of season. Blake's encouragement of innovative studio arrangements, later shared by figures such as Denis Preston, reflected a desire to weave jazz phrasing into the swinging calypso rhythms both men knew well. The style had already enjoyed British popularity since the twenties, sustained by West Indian migration to London that began early in the century. During World War II the music gained further visibility in London clubs and through BBC broadcasts. Blake maintained his role as bandleader until a fatal illness claimed him in the early fifties.
London became his primary base during the thirties, where he worked in the ensembles led by Leon Abbey, by his brother Happy Blake, and by clarinetist Rudolph Dunbar. Mid-decade found him in Leslie Thompson's Emperors of Jazz, a distinguished group, and later in Joe Appleton's band. Recognition for this circle of British jazz figures, among them Bertie King, Lauderic Caton, and Brylo Ford, arrived with the publication of John Chilton's Who's Who of British Jazz, which identified them as the nation's "all-out jazzmen," many of whom worked Soho venues such as Jig's on Wardour Street and thereby shaped subsequent generations of British players. Jig's carried a "shady" reputation, yet it attracted notable visitors; a biography of Caton records that "It was at Jig's that he ran into Fats Waller and Duke Ellington, both of whom sought his (Caton's) services." Caton in turn engaged fellow Trinidadian Blake as trumpeter in the Jig's band and began making records with him.
From 1938 onward Blake led his own groups, which clubs frequently chose as house bands. He absorbed the array of musical currents then flowing through London, delivering bright, precise solos that avoided superfluous notes. Jig's became closely identified with him, and recordings issued as Cyril Blake & His Jig's Club Band convey an almost tangible musical energy despite variable fidelity that sometimes suggests capture from a moving vehicle blocks away. Repertoire featured a spirited reading of Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard's "Frolic Sam" alongside a Jimmie Lunceford-styled treatment of "Rhythm Is Our Business." The piece "Cyril's Blues" remains memorable despite the commonplace nature of such titles. Louis Armstrong visited Jig's both to experience its atmosphere and to hear Blake play.
Early-forties sessions for Regal-Zonophone offered early hints of the polished, exotic productions that would later emerge and also showcased the Afro-Caribbean elements that grew stronger in Blake's work. For a period he directed the calypso star Lord Kitchener, an artist whose distinctive voice would have succeeded even with minimal accompaniment yet benefited greatly from Blake's ensembles. Kitchener, known to associates and studio personnel simply as "Kitch," completed his first major Parlophone sides with these units; the discs reached Trinidad with remarkable speed and sold out regardless of season. Blake's encouragement of innovative studio arrangements, later shared by figures such as Denis Preston, reflected a desire to weave jazz phrasing into the swinging calypso rhythms both men knew well. The style had already enjoyed British popularity since the twenties, sustained by West Indian migration to London that began early in the century. During World War II the music gained further visibility in London clubs and through BBC broadcasts. Blake maintained his role as bandleader until a fatal illness claimed him in the early fifties.