Mistaken Identity (1733 Productions)
Ron Blake
Released October 13, 2023
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
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About:
Ron Blake marks his return to the recording studio after 15 years’ absence by reuniting with an old friend for the October 13 release of Mistaken Identity on his own label 7tēn33 Productions. The tenor and baritone saxophonist partners for the record with esteemed guitarist Bobby Broom (who also serves as producer), enlisting as well a superb rhythm section with bassists Nat Reeves or Reuben Rogers and drummer Kobie Watkins on a smart, heartfelt collection of nine tracks that include band member originals, a standard or two, and compositions by jazz greats that have personal meaning for Blake.
Recorded in two sessions—in 2018 and 2021, pre- and post-pandemic—Mistaken Identity is something of a sampler platter that reintroduces Blake to the jazz-listening public. Best known for his nearly 20-year membership in the Saturday Night Live Band and his work in the Grammy-winning Christian McBride Big Band, Blake nevertheless “suffers from a case of mistaken identity because he is underrepresented as the leading tenor saxophone stylist that he is,” writes Broom in the liner notes. “This album makes for an almost undeniable suggestion that all this should finally change.”
The music on the album bears out Broom’s strong words. Blake offers a stunning slow burn on the opener, Duke Pearson’s “Is That So?”; suffuses Broom’s “No Hype Blues” with soulful flavor; puts elegant tenderness into Johnny Griffin’s “When We Were One” and his own “Grace Ann” (the latter with a beautiful open tone on baritone sax); and delivers the Benny Golson standard “Stablemates” with seasoned wisdom. He also pays tribute to his Caribbean roots with the calypso title track, a tune by his fellow Virgin Islander Victor Provost, and tips his hat to his idol Sonny Rollins with the saxophone colossus’s “Allison.”
Key to the album is the profound chemistry between Blake and Broom. The saxophonist and guitarist have collaborated for more than a quarter century, and here they show their hand-in-glove understanding of each other’s ideas and techniques. Add in the support of a superlative rhythm section, and Mistaken Identity truly brings Blake’s gifts as a bandleader into sharp and unmistakable relief.
Track Listing:
1. Is That So? (Duke Pearson) 5:37
2. Allison (Sonny Rollins) 6:08
3. When We Were One (Johnny Griffin) 4:26
4. No Hype Blues (Bobby Broom) 6:23
5. Beyond Yesterday’s Tomorrows (Ron Blake) 5:54
6. Grace Ann (Ron Blake) 5:22
7. Stablemates (Benny Golson) 6:42
8. To Be (Reuben Rogers) 5:31
9. Mistaken Identity (Victor Provost) 4:59
Personnel:
Ron Blake: tenor & baritone saxophones (tracks 6 & 9)
Bobby Broom: guitar
Nat Reeves: bass (tracks 1-4, 7)
Reuben Rogers: bass (tracks 5, 6, 8 & 9)
Kobie Watkins: drums
Recorded May 9, 2018 and January 22, 2021
Recording and Mixing Engineer: Andy Taub
Assistant Samuel Wahl
Mix and Mastering Engineer: Patrick L. Smith
Producer: Bobby Broom
Photography: Jeff Coffin
Art + Design: Spencer Cole Porter
Review:
Hard to believe that it’s been 15 years since Ron Blake last recorded under his own name (2008’s Shayari). Not that he hasn’t kept busy teaching at Juilliard and working in The Saturday Night Live Band, as well as appearing in the Mingus Big Band and Orchestra. But the Puerto Ricanborn Emmy- and Grammy-winning saxophonist and composer has assembled a quartet with two alternating bassists — Reuben Rogers and Nat Reeves — along with drummer Kobie Watkins and guitarist-producer Bobby Broom for Broom’s 1733 Productions label. The connective thread here is everybody’s hero, Sonny Rollins, with whom Broom and Kobie Watkins also played, and who wrote the invigorating “Allison.” There are also nods to Duke Pearson, who wrote the opening “Is That So” (with an ear-catching opening quote from The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby”), and Benny Golson’s harmonically challenging “Stablemates” with a most musical drum chorus by Watkins. Of course, Blake doesn’t sound anything like Rollins. His tone is rounder, and his improvisations are without stream-of-consciousness quotes. He’s luminous on “Allison,” as well as Johnny Griffin’s ballad “When We Were Young,” and he dances on the bossa “To Be.” While he mostly plays tenor, there are a couple of features for Blake’s baritone sax: a nimble dark duet with Reuben Rogers and a bright Victor Provost-penned calypso title track. Broom is an outstanding player, composer and producer who deserves much wider recognition. Blake, too. This recording should settle the issue once and for all.
Larry Appelbaum (DownBeat)
