Dynamic, engrossing, commanding, Alex Blake is a master of two timeless instruments: the double bass, and the electric bass guitar.

 

On The Double Bass:

"Blake's remarkable soloing on “African Sunrise” employed every imaginable aspect of his instrument. Tapping on the wood, strumming, sliding his fingers up and down the strings, scatting along with his bass lines, he displayed incredible virtuosity combined with inventive musicality in a fashion that was stunningly entertaining.”

Don Heckman, The Los Angeles Times

 

On The Electric Bass Guitar:

"Blake cites Richard Davis, Jimmy Garrison, Reggie Workman as bass playing influences, and also Jimi Hendrix and Eric Dolphy. Despite having a strong background in Latin music, however, Blake’s compositions don’t reflect that experience; but his bass playing does. “It’s a strumming technique; it’s like having a guitar and congas and putting them together with the bass. It’s a construct of strumming and playing the congas; that’s the percussive side of my playing. That’s the concept of my playing.”

Christopher Porter, The Jazz Times

 

Drawing from both disciplines, his rapturous sounds brim with intellect and ingenuity, shaping rhythmic triumphs into unquestionable truths of his devotion to jazz.

 

Within his legacy of unmatched creativity lies a musician of eloquent mastery, a man whose decades of growth and tenacity have produced an indomitable novelty.

 

For over 4.5 decades Alex Blake has been the most sought after bass player of his generation, requested by artists whose legacies are synonymous with greatness: Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Sun Ra, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, Mongo Santamaria, Stan Getz, McCoy Tyner, Nancy Wilson, Max Roach, Billy Cobham, The Manhattan Transfer, Astrud Gilberto, Pharaoh Sanders and Randy Weston,......to name a few.

 

 

 

In 2011,  he was inducted into the Brooklyn Jazz Hall of Fame and Museum, receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium

 

What makes us great are the accolades that are born and matured within, the ones we nurture ourselves, our personal themes, values, and experiences, our courage and constancy. The strength to push on, to create a path that refills us, a memory that fosters our dreams and the destinies we choose.  After all, we are in charge.

 

 

 

Welcome to Alex Blake Bass.com