Michael Blake - Tiddy Boom (2014)

Often musicians find it refreshing to look back to past styles and masters to stimulate their creativity. This enables listeners to hear the true breadth of a musician s artistry, from their most contemporary developments to their knowledge of the tradition, which is so important in jazz.

The New York City based saxophonist Michael Blake has built his reputation by producing albums that "make the familiar sound fresh" (Jim Macnie, Downbeat). That statement couldn't apply better than to Blake's new release, Tiddy Boom, his nod to the magnificent tenor saxophone innovators Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young.

Recorded in January 2014 and set for release on Sunnyside Records (October 28th, 2014), the session sounds like a classic recording date from the 1950s or 1960s.Tiddy Boom reunites Blake with two of his former Jazz Composers Collective colleagues, bassist Ben Allison and pianist Frank Kimbrough, who, along drummer Rudy Royston, provide effortless support for Blake s tenor sax to flow in any direction he chooses on his program of all original compositions.

As Blake puts it, "I wrote these tunes with my friends in mind. They are swinging and melodic pieces that revere the type of spirit inherent to jazz that drew me into the music. But what I think gives Tiddy Boom that classic jazz sound is a combination of several things: First and foremost is the passion we all share for this music and the respect we have for the musicians that created it. On top of that is the trust we have in each other, a camaraderie that comes from being on the road together and years of hacking it out in NYC. In that regard we continue to walk in the footprints of the giants.

The title references Lester 'Pres' Young (1909-1959), who had a vernacular all his own. Some of his infamous words include the invention of crib for apartment, Lady, as in Lady Day (Billie Holiday), and the word cool. While watching an old video of Pres, Blake picked up on him requesting the drummer to give him, "little tickity boom, please," which has since evolved into Tiddy Boom.

Blake has been known for producing contemporary jazz albums, often using world music influenced grooves, electronic tinges and avant-garde elements but always ripe with an underlying rhythmic sensibility. What sets this recording apart from his other work is that Tiddy Boom is all about the tenor saxophone.

"Last year I received Chamber Music America's 2013 New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development program funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation commissioning me to write a new work entitled Contrasts in Individualism. The compositions reflect on the stylistic innovations of Hawkins and Young that gave birth to modern jazz by peering at their concepts through a contemporary lens. I am now an artist in mid-career and I felt this commission brought with it an important opportunity for me to find my own identity as a tenor saxophonist.