Search - Ran Blake :: Unmarked Van: Tribute to Sarah Vaughan

Elegant, Dark Music....

Gary L Connely | Hercules, CA | 08/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In jazz, there is a long line of people who qualify for the title, "The Greatest ... That Nobody Ever Heard Of." Ran Blake, who has been playing and recording haunting, quirky, individualistic, avant-garde, mostly solo piano jazz for almost 50 years - and teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music for most of that time - can go right to the head of the queue.



"Unmarked Van: A Tribute to Sarah Vaughan," is a typical - that means wonderful - Ran Blake album. Assisted by drummer Tiziano Tononi every once in awhile, Mr Blake plays a set of standards once sung by Ms Vaughan. Well, at least most of them are - Mr Blake can be tricky - sometimes his version of a song is driven by its emotional content, rather than the song itself. But whether it's the song, or the idea of the song, Mr Blake's elegant, stripped down, single note style is always strangely evocative.



To steal an observation made by Scott Yanow, "Unmarked Van..." is a tribute to just about the most extroverted performer ever, done by one of the most introverted players around - an album of elegant, (there's that word again), darkly beautiful music."