Ran Blake/Dave Knife Fabris

Regularly described as cold, difficult and idiosyncratic, the music of pianist Ran Blake, who turned 90 on April 20, revels in the third adjective, but doesn’t warrant the others. That’s confirmed on this CD of never before heard material recorded 19 years ago this month. First chairman of The New England Conservatory’s Third Stream department in 1973, the pianist instructed the way he improvises. Mixing free jazz, gospel, movie themes and notated music, the selections here are pared to the bone allowing him to perform 17 selections in less than 57 minutes, with most in the two-minute range.

Blake can swing when he wants to. For instance he ends Abbey Lincoln’s “Throw it Away” with a bluesy cadenza after stretching the melody at a pseudo-tango tempo. “Drop Me Off in Harlem/Night and Day” which combines the Duke Ellington and Cole Porter songs on the disc’s longest track, start off with quiet precise key plinks, then pivots to almost pure honky-tonk rhythms before adding flowery coloration to Porter’s familiar melody.

Creating his own versions of tunes as different as those from big band arranger Pete Rugolo and film composer Bernard Herrmann, he reduces most theme statements by mixing precise intonation and rhythmic undertones. “Paris” his one original is a contrafact of “I Love Paris” that vibrates the soundboard away from the melody towards a harsh key cracks.

Additional scope is given to the final eight tines when Blake is joined by guitarist Dave Knife Fabris, a former student who has played everything from trad jazz to funk and whose nickname came from the pianist. With resonating thumb plucks, vibrating frails  and reverberating twangs, Fabris adds connective comping and colorful sound tinctures to taunt piano forays on more cinema themes. Together they nearly attain a funky groove playing Horace Silver’s “Soulville’ with antiphonic riffs between key clunks and string stings. Louder and high-pitched guitar frails meet contrapuntal piano repetition on Ornette Coleman’s “Sadness/Space Church” giving those melodies even more unique twists.

First Visit is a fine introduction to Blake’s oeuvre for the novice and conformation of his skill for the initiated.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing:1. Vladiazi 2. This Will All Seem Funny 3. Collaboration 4. Drop Me Off in Harlem/Night and Day 5. Merci Bon Dieu 6. Hornin’ In 7. All That is Tied 8. Throw it Away 9. Paris 10. Bye Bye Blackbird 11. Machito/Jammin’ 12. Vilna 13. North By Northwest 14. Nightcrawler 15. Soulville 16. Sadness/Space Church 17. Spiral Staircase 18. Symphony No. 9 Second Movement

Personnel: Ran Blake (piano) and Dave Knife Fabris (guitar-tracks 11-18)