FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT JOHNATHAN BLAKE

1. He was born to jazz royalty and an enduring legacy. The son of the late jazz violin legend John Blake Jr., Johnathan Blake carries on the proud and fiery lineage of Philadelphia jazz drumming that includes Philly Joe Jones, Joe Chambers, Mickey Roker, Sunny Murray, and Donald Bailey. Blake started his path on the drums at age 10 and passed through the city’s Settlement Music School, where his classmates included future giants Joey DeFrancesco, Jaleel Shaw, and Christian McBride. Immersion in Philly’s club scene led to jazz studies at New Jersey’s William Patterson University and eventually Rutgers, where he earned a master's in composition.
2. He has built an impressive career as a sideman. From his early club experiences with organ great Shirley Scott to the present day, Blake has amassed a staggering résumé that includes work with the Mingus Big Band, Maria Schneider, Pharoah Sanders, SFJAZZ saxophonist David Sánchez, Russell Malone, Randy Brecker, Roy Hargrove, Joe Locke, Oliver Lake, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Donny McCaslin, Tom Harrell, Bill Frisell, and dozens more. He made his recording debut in 1996 with veteran pianist Norman Simmons and has appeared on over 80 albums to date.  
3. He has been part of Resident Artistic Director Kenny Barron’s trio — the greatest working piano trio in jazz — for 15 years. After his longtime drummer Ben Riley had to back out of a planned European tour, Barron called on Blake, who had suitably impressed the pianist at a club date the year prior. Since then, Blake has traveled the world and back with the 2010 NEA Jazz Master, performing innumerable concerts and recording the albums Book of Intuition (Impulse!, 2016), Concentric Circles (Blue Note, 2018), and the 2020 Dare2 trio release Without Deception co-led by Barron and bass icon Dave Holland.
4. He is a respected bandleader whose acclaimed albums spotlight his singular work as a composer. Blake made his auspicious debut as a bandleader with 2012’s The Eleventh Hour for the Sunnyside label, featuring an all-star cast including Mark Turner, Robert Glasper, Jaleel Shaw, Ben Street, and Tom Harrell, among others. 2014’s Gone, But Not Forgotten and 2019’s Trion both highlighted the saxophone work of SFJAZZ Collective Music Director Chris Potter, and 2021’s Homeward Bound focused on Blake’s Pentad quintet with Immanuel Wilkins, Joel Ross, David Virelles, and Dezron Douglas. An intensely personal work, Homeward Bound was named for the leader’s title track dedicated to Ana Grace Márquez-Greene, the daughter of his former Tom Harrell bandmate Jimmy Greene, one of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.
5. He makes his SFJAZZ debut as a leader with four nights in the Joe Henderson Lab. Less than a week after his performances with Kenny Barron in Miner Auditorium, Blake returns with his quintet My Life Matters — a band named for the dynamic new suite of music they will be performing. Featuring Bay Area raised saxophone great Dayna Stephens and piano phenom Fabian Almazan along with young vibraphone virtuoso Jalen Baker and Blake’s longtime collaborator, bassist Dezron Douglas, the group performs material from Blake’s new suite My Life Matters as well as his 2023 sophomore Blue Note release Passage. Commissioned by New York’s Jazz Gallery, My Life Matters is a dual treatise on the importance of family values and the social imperative to stand up in the face of injustice. In the composer’s words, “It’s not just about Black Lives Matter, it’s about us as a whole. We have to learn how to coexist. We were all created here to live in harmony with one another. These pieces will hopefully serve as a jumping point for open discussion on that.” 

Johnathan Blake and My Life Matters performs 2/8-11 in the Joe Henderson Lab. TIckets and more information available here. The 2/9 performance will be broadcast as part of SFJAZZ At Home's Fridays Live series. Watch here.