(Blue Note)Drummer Blake joins with Dezon Douglas, Immanuel Wilkins, Joel Ross and David Virelles to create enthralling post-bop, soul jazz and Coltraneian pop
In Philadelphia in the late 1970s, a two-year-old Johnathan Blake used to be wheeled to his jazz violinist father John Blake’s gigs with saxophonist Grover
Washington – where he would sit entranced by the sight, sound and rhythms of the band’s powerful Philly drummer Pete Vinson. Those memories would help to turn Blake into one of the most creatively supportive drummers of recent times, whose perceptive power has been embraced by heavyweights from the Mingus Big Band, Q-Tip and Dr Lonnie Smith, to post-bop innovators Tom Harrell and Maria Schneider.
Homeward Bound is Blake’s exhilarating debut for the Blue Note label. Pentad, his new quintet, is a contemporary dream-band lineup with longtime bass partner Dezron Douglas, and three acclaimed young virtuosi in alto saxist and fellow-Philadelphian Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Joel Ross, and the Cuba-born global jazz keyboardist David Virelles.