Unless you�re a player or malarky geek, you�ve probably ne'er heard of Ran Blake. But the 73-year-old pianist has more than 30 albums to his nominate and has played unnumbered concerts from New York to Greece.
Tomorrow he�s playing in a place that�s completely modern and completely familiar to him: Blake�s performance at the Vernissage restaurant on Beacon Street will be his number one public show in his hometown of Brookline.
�It�s a wonderful, wonderful street, Beacon Street,� Blake said of his neighborhood. �You receive hints of yuppie-ism, but you still have diversity.�
And that variety, he adds,includes such favorite musca volitans as �places like Dalia�s, the Khoa Sarn, Rani�s Indian Bistro, all the different places to simply get a small platter of hors d�oeuvres or dessert.�
Blake, wHO may be best known for his jazz interpretations of film noir, as well is happy �to front at the street or walk to the library at night.�
Born in Springfield, Blake grew up in Connecticut and spent time in New York in front moving to Boston to teach at New England Conservatory in 1967. Since 1980, he�s lived in the same basement flat on Marion Street near Coolidge Corner.
�All these different neighborhoods play a role in my life,� he said.
He describes Brookline as �a net of safety, a net of adventure.� He dialogue fondly nigh walking through the streets and watching movies at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.
The hall of his flat is lined with posters for concerts and classic thrillers. His shelves ar stacked with Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang DVDs and soundtracks.
To demonstrate one of his favorite shipway of creating music, Blake put �Bunny Lake is Missing� into his DVD player and sat at his Falcone grand pianissimo, which is angled to face the TV screen.
He skipped past a few scenes and muted the sound. As he watched the motion picture roll, his fingers went to the keyboard. With a delicate touch and an expert�s use of space, Blake started to play, his music an aural mirror of the on-screen tension.
�You see masses standing in a infirmary room spell a young blond lady�s being diagnosed,� he said, punctuating the actors� motions with eerie melodies. �These images often run through my mind when I�m playing solo piano.�
Blake doesn�t do as often as he once did; he now prefers to hear others in concert. He still teaches and records at home, simply for the most role, his public performances of late consist of a few tunes at a large event, such as NEC�s forthcoming faculty preference concert.
All this makes his first Brookline performance in particular special. Vernissage restaurant in Washington Square is one of the few local places with room for a luxurious piano, which was a major reason Blake waited this long to toy close to home.
Blake even has a title for the set: �Washington Square Noir: Ice Cream and Tears.�
While he plans to play some solo piano, he will be united by a group of former NEC students and highly regarded singer Dominique Eade.
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