Combobulate

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

How can an album so technically stripped down feel like it has the potential to do anything? What did Michael Blake find in this formula and these players to make the wind in these guys’ instruments... — Downbeat, January 2023, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 14th Oct 2022
Catalogue No: NVN032
Label: Newvelle Records
Length: 49 minutes

Blake, M: Henry's Boogaloo

Work length5:05

$1.00

$1.40

Michael Blake, Clark Gayton, Steven Bernstein

Blake, M: Combobulate

Work length4:53

$1.00

$1.40

Michael Blake, Bob Stewart, Marcus Rojas, Allan Mednard

Blake, M: Focus Pocus

Work length4:57

$1.00

$1.40

Michael Blake, Clark Gayton, Bob Stewart, Marcus Rojas, Allan Mednard

Roland Blake: Cuyahoga Valley

Work length2:20

$1.00

$1.40

Michael Blake

Blake, M: Strange Affair

Work length3:28

$1.00

$1.40

Michael Blake

Blake, M: Bills in the Bell

Work length7:07

$1.50

$2.10

Michael Blake

Lurie: Bob The Bob

Work length3:48

$1.00

$1.40

Michael Blake, Clark Gayton

Blake, M: Malagasy

Work length4:31

$1.00

$1.40

Michael Blake, Steven Bernstein, Bob Stewart, Marcus Rojas, Allan Mednard

Blake, M: Anthem for No Country

Work length5:16

$1.00

$1.40

Michael Blake

Blake, M: Contemplation

Work length4:17

$1.00

$1.40

Michael Blake, Bob Stewart, Marcus Rojas, Allan Mednard

trad.: The Parting Glass

Work length3:44

$1.00

$1.40

Michael Blake

About
Reviews
Explore

About

A couple of years ago, Michael sent us some video of him playing a house concert with a brass band. At that time we had a full slot of releases lined up, but that video stayed in our minds. There was something infectious and joyful about it. It wasn’t just the joy of the music, something about the atmosphere felt right too. A living room setting, a joyful explosion of noise, a bull in a china shop, something that felt just barely contained. A pre-pandemic, shoulder-to-shoulder gathering with none of the accouterments of “the concert hall” setting. Not even a piano. When putting together this collection, we had to capture some of that joy on vinyl.

Michael Blake’s sextet on Combobulate features the debut of a world-class brass band – a much needed explosion of color from Blake’s inimitable musical mind. Holding court with a titanic low end are two of the most iconic tuba players of our time: Bob Stewart and Marcus Rojas. New York all-stars Steven Bernstein on trumpet and Clark Gayton on trombone round out the brass section and the phenomenal Allan Mednard holds down the drum chair in this one-of-a-kind ensemble.

Blake is always exploring the edge of so many different pockets of the New York jazz world. A “first call” musician who prefers to call his own shots. Country, soul, “free,” swing, trad jazz, rock, musical traditions from Vietnam and Inda, southern blues...all of it rolling around in his bag but always with an ear tilted towards the joy of it. Despite whatever complexity he digs into, there’s always a dance to his music – never an intellectual remove. Blake writes and plays music that wants to be heard.

Reviews

January 2023

How can an album so technically stripped down feel like it has the potential to do anything? What did Michael Blake find in this formula and these players to make the wind in these guys’ instruments lift this sextet to such extraordinary heights? Combobulate is a collection of songs that works to refashion the brass band into whatever Blake needs it to be, and he’s got some ideas ready.

Combobulate

Downloads

Contents

Download queue