Seamus Blake

Years active1993–presentLabelsCriss CrossWebsiteseamusblake.com

Seamus Blake (born December 8, 1970) is a British-born Canadian tenor saxophonist.

Early life and education

Blake was born in London, England and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His mother introduced him to jazz when he was a child and he later attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston.^[1]

Career

Upon graduation, he moved to New York City.^[2] In February 2002, he won the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition.^[3][4][5] He currently plays with his own quintet (featuring David Kikoski, Lage Lund, Bill Stewart, and Matt Clohesy) and has been a regular with the Mingus Big Band as well as many other New York musicians.

In 2022 Seamus became a member of Roger Waters touring band for the This Is Not a Drill tour. Seamus is playing sax on Pink Floyd classic songs as well as Waters solo material.^{[citation needed]}

Discography

As leader

• The Call (Criss Cross, 1994)
• The Bloomdaddies (Criss Cross, 1996)
• Four Track Mind (Criss Cross, 1997)
• Stranger Things Have Happened (Fresh Sound, 1999)
• Sun Sol (Fresh Sound, 2000)
• Echonomics (Criss Cross, 2001)
• Live Au Cabaret (Effendi, 2001)
• Way Out Willy (Criss Cross, 2007)
• Live in Italy (Jazz Eyes 2008)
• Bellwether (Criss Cross, 2009)
• Live at Smalls (SmallsLIVE, 2010)
• As You Like with BANN (Jazz Eyes 2010)
• Superconductor (5Passion 2015)
• Reeds Ramble with Chris Cheek (Criss Cross, 2014)
• Let's Call the Whole Thing Off with Chris Cheek (Criss Cross, 2016)
• Guardians of the Heart Machine (Whirlwind, 2019)

With Opus 5

• Introducing Opus 5 (Criss Cross, 2011)
• Pentasonic (Criss Cross, 2012)
• Progression (Criss Cross, 2014)
• Tickle (Criss Cross, 2015)

As sideman

With Lea DeLaria

• Play It Cool (Warner Bros., 2001)
• Double Standards (Telarc, 2003)
• House of David (Ghostlight, 2015)
• The Live (Smoke Sessions, 2008)

With David Kikoski

• The Maze (Criss Cross, 1999)
• Combinations (Criss Cross, 2001)
• The Five (DIW, 2002)
• Limits (Criss Cross, 2006)

With Victor Lewis

• Eeeyyess! (Enja, 1997)
• Know It Today, Know It Tomorrow (Red Record, 1993)
• Three Way Conversations (Red Record, 1997)

With Monday Michiru

• Episodes in Color (SAR, 2002)
• Don't Disturb This Groove (Grand Gallery, 2011)
• Brasilified (Billboard, 2013)

With Mingus Big Band

• Blues & Politics (Dreyfus, 1999)
• I Am Three (Sunnyside/Sue Mingus, 2005)
• Live in Time (Dreyfus, 1996)
• Live in Tokyo (Sunnyside/Sue Mingus, 2006)
• Que Viva Mingus! (Dreyfus, 1997)
• Tonight at Noon... Three or Four Shades of Love (Dreyfus, 2002)

With Eric Reed

• The Baddest Monk (Savant, 2012)
• Groovewise (Smoke Sessions, 2014)
• The Adventurous Monk (Savant, 2014)

With Alex Sipiagin

• Mirrors (Criss Cross, 2003)
• Returning (Criss Cross, 2005)
• Mirages (Criss Cross, 2009)
• Live at Smalls (SmallsLIVE, 2013)
• From Reality and Back (5Passion 2013)

With others

• Franco Ambrosetti, Live at the Blue Note (Enja, 1993)
• Diego Barber, 411 (Origin, 2013)
• Ronnie Blake, Assimilation (Hi Speed Horns, 2017)
• Erin Bode, Over and Over (Maxjazz, 2006)
• Monika Borzym, Girl Talk (Sony, 2011)
• Robi Botos, Movin' Forward (A440, 2015)
• Brazilian Girls, Brazilian Girls (Verve Forecast, 2005)
• Brazilian Girls, Lazy Lover (Verve Forecast, 2004)
• Dave Douglas, Freak In (Bluebird, 2002)
• Billy Drummond, The Gift (Criss Cross, 1994)
• Fleurine, Fire (Coast to Coast 2002)
• Sara Gazarek, Return to You (Native Language, 2007)
• Wycliffe Gordon, Dig This! (Criss Cross, 2002)
• Wycliffe Gordon, United Soul Experience (Criss Cross, 2002)
• Danny Grissett, Form (Criss Cross, 2009)
• George Gruntz, Sins'n Wins'n Funs' Left-cores and Hard-core En-cores (TCB, 1996)
• Kevin Hays, Go Round (Blue Note, 1995)
• David Hazeltine, For All We Know (Smoke Sessions, 2014)
• Conrad Herwig, Unseen Universe (Criss Cross, 2000)
• Conrad Herwig, Obligation (Criss Cross, 2005)
• Scott Kinsey, No Sleep (Kinesthetic Music, 2017)
• Jane Monheit, The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me (Concord, 2008)
• Josh Nelson, Let It Go (Omagatoki, 2007)
• Robert Sadin, Art of Love: Music of Machaut (Deutsche Grammophon, 2009)
• Antonio Sanchez, The Meridian Suite (CAM Jazz, 2015)^[6]
• Ken Schaphorst, Purple (Naxos, 1998)
• John Stetch, Carpatian Blues (Terra Nova, 1996)
• Bill Stewart, Telepathy (Blue Note, 1997)
• Bill Stewart, Space Squid (Pirouet, 2015)^[7]
• Helen Sung, Going Express (Sunnyside, 2011)
• Mark Turner, Yam Yam (Criss Cross, 1995)
• Manuel Valera, Forma Nueva (Mavo, 2004)
• Jesse van Ruller, Circles (Criss Cross, 2003)
• Jesse van Ruller, Views (Criss Cross, 2006)
• Sam Yahel, Jazz Side of the Moon (Chesky, 2008)
• Peter Zak, One Mind (Fresh Sound, 2018)
• Mark Zubek, Twentytwodollarfishlunch (Fresh Sound, 2009)
• Dan Costa (Composer), Skyness (Independent, 2020)
• Joel Haynes, The Return (Cellar Music 2023)

References