Friday, April 30, 7:30 pm
Michael Blake and Hellbent

Tula's Nightclub and Restaurant
2214 Second Ave (Belltown), Seattle

$18 general; $16 Earshot members and seniors, $10 students
Call 206-443-4221 to make reservations

Saxophonist and composer Michael Blake has contributed to Earshot programming before – in the 2002 Earshot Jazz Festival with the Herbie Nichols Project and more recently in 2008 with Ben Allison’s Man Size Safe band. We’ve eagerly awaited his return and with good reason, as those who attended these past performances can attest. Blake, a New York City resident, is always exploring the new music that inspires him, a quality that assures each performance is dramatically different from the last. For two decades Blake has presented a wild array of innovative bands that exhibit his power to both command and challenge the jazz tradition. From contemporary jazz and American roots music to reggae and traditional Vietnamese music, Blake brings technical mastery and artistic courage to each project he takes on. Here Blake leads Hellbent, a powerful ensemble of like minded musicians. Blake teams with fellow Lounge Lizard Alumni and Ornette Coleman drummer Calvin Weston, tuba virtuoso Marcus Rojas, and string innovator Charlie Burnham on violin. Hellbent is best experienced live, where the band’s passion and urgency fills the room and its inhabitants with unrestrained excitement. As one All About Jazz author commented: “They are hell bent on having fun and creating music that speaks to the heart and soul as well to the body and the mind.”