John Blake

John Blake’s path as a musician shifted repeatedly between R&B-leaning projects and bolder, more exploratory sessions. Though his tone on violin was agreeable rather than sharply individual, the adaptable player moved comfortably across many contexts. Following rigorous classical training, he first attracted notice through his early-’70s work alongside Archie Shepp. Throughout the following decade he appeared on recordings by McCoy Tyner, James Newton, Cecil McBee, Jay Hoggard, and Grover Washington, Jr., while also touring widely with both Tyner and Washington. For Gramavision he issued a run of generally compelling yet stylistically varied albums in the 1980s, among them a notable 1986 encounter with fellow violinists Michal Urbaniak and Didier Lockwood; in 1992 he released a single CD on Sunnyside that hinted at further promise. After being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, Blake died in August 2014 at the age of 67.