The Squid's Ear Magazine


Made in China (Michael Blake / Samuel Blaser / Michael Sarin): Transmissions (For Tune)

Originally organized for a tour of China, the "Made in China" band of Michael Blake on saxophones, Samuel Blaser on trombone and Michael Sarin on drums, recorded this album in Brooklyn, performing compositions by Blake and Blaser including a tribute to free-jazz icon Ornette Coleman, and Louis Moholo's "You Ain't Gonna Know Me 'Cos You Think You Know Me".
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Michael Blake-tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone

Samuel Blaser-trombone

Michael Sarin-drums


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UPC: 5902768701975

Label: For Tune
Catalog ID: 0098 (063)
Squidco Product Code: 32360

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2016
Country: Poland
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded at Duro of Brooklyn, New York, on June 16th, 2015, by Scotty Hard.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"For most everyone "made in China" is a label synonymous with anything that is manufactured for themasses in a far away place by legions of laborers. However, Made in China will transport you to an idea of a different China; one where throngs of young people in cities like Shenzhen applaud, shout and whistle with excitement for the unpredictable sounds of improvised music.

Made in China got its name because the band was in fact "made" in China. Originally organized by a friend to tour China as a quartet that included upright bass, the band found itself with visas in hand but no bass player. Transmissions contains a program of mostly original compositions by Blake and Blaser including a tribute to the great free-jazz icon Ornette Coleman and a melodic tongue twister called Mouse. Two covers include a tender rendition of Louis Moholo's "You Ain't Gonna Know Me 'Cos You Think You Know Me" and the rarely heard Jamaican ska tune "You Don't Know" which are performed with an abiding reverence that captures every bit of the stubbornness that their titles suggest. The engineer and producer Scotty Hard brings a wealth of experience to this spontaneous recording session that is stunning in its genre-busting variety."-For Tune


Artist Biographies

"Michael Blake (born May 19, 1964) is a Canadian-born [Montreal] American saxophonist, composer and arranger. Blake is based in New York City where he has led a robust career leading his own bands. As a sideman Michael has performed with Charlie Hunter, The Lounge Lizards, Steven Bernstein/Henry Butler and the Hot 9, Ben Allison, Nicole Mitchell, Hamid Drake, Oliver Lake Big Band, Dafnis Prieto Big Band, Ricki Lee Jones and Ray LaMontagne. The New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff wrote,"Mr. Blake, on tenor especially, is an endlessly engaging improviser, and an inquisitive one"."

-Michael Blake Website (https://www.michaelblake.net/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"[...] Born and raised in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland - a lesser-known but no less significant jazz metropolis which was, for a time, home to expatriate Americans Sidney Bechet and Kenny Clarke, as well as Swiss jazz trombonist Raymond Droz - Blaser has also spent considerable time living in New York City and currently resides in Berlin; truly an international musician, then, in clear defiance of boundaries cultural, musical and stylistic. Beginning trombone lessons at the age of 9, he "couldn't go past third position and had to have a trolley to carry trombone because it was too heavy," says Blaser. Still, with plenty of music in the Blaser household, where he was the middle of three children - ranging from Swiss folk music to American R&B and jazz - Blaser progressed quickly, entering the local conservatory at 14 and graduating seven years later in 2002 after receiving a number of awards in both the jazz and classical spheres, including the 2000 Benny Golson Prize.

Continuing private studies, Blaser began a number of significant associations, including the heralded Vienna Art Orchestra and European Radio Big Band, leading to a Fulbright scholarship which enabled him to study in the United States at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music, going on to win the J.J. Johnson Prize, as well as both the Public Prize and Jury's Favorite Player awards at the 2006 Fribourg Jazz Festival.

All of these diverse accomplishments have ultimately - and inevitably - led to Blaser finding a personal nexus where disparate elements like Indian Tihi and Wagnerian opera meet. Blaser's impressive improvisational élan is predicated on instrumental mastery that is nothing more than the means to very musical ends. Together with his equally unfettered quartet, Blaser continues to expand the purview of jazz, redefining it in the new millennium as it enters its second century of existence.

Beyond Blaser's ability to combine knotty compositional form with incendiary improvisational prowess in the context of his own music, his unfettered yet ever-collaborative approach has resulted in a number of significant associations, among them his ongoing work with Swiss percussion legend Pierre Favre; a much-lauded duo with pianist Malcolm Braff; touring in 2012 as a member of François Houle's recent 5+1 group, and heard on the French Canadian clarinetist's Genera (Songlines, 2012); and recording/performing with Berlin-based Canadian saxophonist Peter van Huffel's HuffLiGNoN group with singer Sophie Tassignon. Blaser has also shared the stage with artists including trombonist David Taylor, bassist Michael Blake, drummer John Hollenbeck and pianist Hal Galper. It's no surprise that Rene Laanen of USA Trombone Online has called Blaser" one of today´s finest trombonists."

2013 will see Blaser touring with two new trios: one that, in addition to Marc Ducret, will also feature Danish drummer Peter Bruun; and another featuring French pianist Benoit Delbecq and American drummer Gerry Hemingway. Equally important, Blaser will also reunite his Consort in Motion (Kind of Blue, 2011) Quartet with pianist Russ Lossing, Belgian reed player Joachim Badenhorst, bassist Drew Gress and Hemingway, who replaces the sadly deceased Paul Motian. That record - Blaser's first and only to include a pianist, marrying the seemingly disparate elements of Renaissance and Baroque period composition with more open-ended jazz improvisation - was praised by All About Jazz's Troy Collins as " Fearlessly modern, yet respectfully regal." Collins continues, asserting that "Blaser's adventurous arrangements and reinterpretations offer the best of both worlds, enriching the raw impetuousness of avant-garde jazz with the proven sophistication of ageless classical forms. Consort in Motion is a high-water mark in the enduring lineage of the Third Stream, and all the more inspiring for the focus of its vision."

Meanwhile, with the release of As the Sea - like Boundless, a live recording but one culled from a single performance - Blaser reaps the rewards of greater trust and personal camaraderie built with Ducret, Oester and Cleaver through additional touring, following the release of their debut recording. "The music is quite different from the first record," says Blaser, "because things are more written. It's a little more complex rhythmically, too. But it's crazy, because I can play anything - a single note, even - and everybody will move with me. It's pretty intense."

Between recording and touring with his own groups and collaborating in other leaders' ensembles, Blaser's career continues an upward trajectory that seems to have no end in sight. "The world of music fascinates me to no end, and I´m determined to take one journey after another with my instrument and work," says Blaser. "It´s all about discovery and communicating new ideas. Believe me, I´m proof that a shiny trombone can send a message right to your heart and change your life." "

-Samuel Blaser Website (https://www.samuelblaser.com/biography/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Over the last twenty-five years, drummer Michael Sarin has been at the center of New York City's genre-bending jazz and improvisation community. His versatility and musical wit helped forge long associations with forward-looking artists Thomas Chapin, Dave Douglas, Myra Melford, Ben Allison, and David Krakauer.

Born in 1965, Michael was raised on Bainbridge Island, WA-a ferryboat ride from Seattle. His interest in music and the drums came early, nourished by both the record collections of his parents and older sister, and by the AM radio he received at age seven.

His formal music education began during high school with drummer Dave Coleman, Sr. He went on to study drums and percussion with Tom Collier at the University of Washington, and later with master drummer, Jerry Granelli.

Since moving to New York in 1989, Michael's unique style and approach to the drum set has been highly sought after by NYC and European musicians looking to expand the definitions of jazz and improvised music. He has contributed to recordings by the aforementioned artists as well as those of Frank Carlberg, Anthony Coleman, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Mark Helias, Denman Maroney, Simon Nabatov, Mario Pavone, and Ned Rothenberg--recordings found on numerous music critics' Top Ten CD year-end lists.

Michael performs all over the world--in major and minor festivals; concert halls famous and infamous, big and small. He can be heard on recent recordings of Frank Carlberg, Mark Dresser, Joe Fiedler, Erik Friedlander, David Krakauer, and Leslie Pintchik."

-Michael Sarin Website (http://www.michaelsarin.com/html/about.php)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Transmissions 06:49

2. Missing Marc Suetterlyn 03:46

3. Pool 2000 04:23

4. You Ain't Gonna Know Me 'cos You Think You Know Me 04:06

5. Ornette Day and Night 04:08

6. Mouse 03:41

7. You Don't Know 05:02

8. Variety Hour 06:30

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Trio Recordings
New in Improvised Music
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For Tune.


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