Seamus Blake

Seamus Blake stands out as a saxophonist whose inventive improvisation defines a singular path through modern creative jazz and swinging post-bop. He first gained broad recognition in the 1990s upon receiving the 2002 Thelonious Monk Jazz Award. Frequently sought after for performances, he maintains long-term roles in the Mingus Big Band and the Criss Cross label collective Opus 5 while collaborating with like-minded figures including Alex Sipiagin, Victor Lewis, and John Scofield. Leading his own projects, Blake has issued several exploratory acoustic jazz recordings such as the 1997 release Four Track Mind, 2007’s Way Out Willy, and 2009’s Bellwether. He also directs the stylistically expansive group the Bloomdaddies, which merges funk and jazz-rock influences. His orchestral work Superconductor earned a 2017 Juno Award nomination for Jazz Album of the Year.

Born in England in 1970, Blake spent his formative years in Canada before enrolling at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where he recorded alongside drummer Victor Lewis and Franco Ambrosetti. Following graduation he moved to New York City, rapidly becoming a valued sideman with artists such as drummer Billy Drummond, pianist Darrell Grant, and saxophonist Mark Turner. Additional touring credits include work with John Scofield, and he remains a core member of the Mingus Big Band, contributing to six of its Grammy-nominated albums.

Blake launched his recording career as a leader with the 1993 Criss Cross date The Call, an acoustic post-bop session that united him with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Bill Stewart. His next effort, 1997’s The Bloomdaddies, introduced electronics and steered the music toward funk and rock textures, reflecting an expansive aesthetic that would recur across later projects as he shifted genres between releases. Returning to acoustic jazz on the same year’s Four Track Mind, he enlisted tenor saxophonist Turner and trumpeter Tim Hagans. He then balanced approaches on 1999’s Stranger Things Have Happened, incorporating funk and angular jazz while retaining Rosenwinkel, adding pianist Brad Mehldau, Grenadier, and drummer Jorge Rossy.

In 2000 Blake teamed with Berklee classmate drummer Marc Miralta and bassist Avishai Cohen for Sunsol; a year afterward came Echonomics, again featuring pianist David Kikoski, bassist Ed Howard, and longtime associate Lewis. Kikoski also appeared on the hard-swinging post-bop outings Way Out Willy and Bellwether. The 2010 concert recording Live at Smalls captured performances with Stewart, guitarist Lage Lund, bassist Matt Clohesy, and Kikoski. As part of drummer Adam Nussbaum’s BANN ensemble, Blake featured on the group’s 2011 debut As You Like.

Around the same period he joined the Criss Cross ensemble Opus 5 for its 2011 introduction, Introducing Opus 5, alongside trumpeter Alex Sipiagin, pianist Kikoski, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Donald Edwards. Conceived in the spirit of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, the band has remained active, delivering 2012’s Pentasonic, 2014’s Progression, and 2015’s Tickle. That year Blake also appeared with Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba on the Grammy-nominated Suite Caminos. Two years later Superconductor brought his first Juno Award nomination for Jazz Album of the Year.