A couple of years ago, Michael sent us some video of him playing a house concert with a brass band. At that time we had a full slot of releases lined up, but that video stayed in our minds. There was something infectious and joyful about it. It wasn’t just the joy of the music, something about the atmosphere felt right too. A living room setting, a joyful explosion of noise, a bull in a china shop, something that felt just barely contained. A pre-pandemic, shoulder-to-shoulder gathering with none of the accouterments of “the concert hall” setting. Not even a piano. When putting together this collection, we had to capture some of that joy on vinyl.

Michael Blake’s sextet on Combobulate features the debut of a world-class brass band – a much needed explosion of color from Blake’s inimitable musical mind. Holding court with a titanic low end are two of the most iconic tuba players of our time: Bob Stewart and Marcus Rojas. New York all-stars Steven Bernstein on trumpet and Clark Gayton on trombone round out the brass section and the phenomenal Allan Mednard holds down the drum chair in this one-of-a-kind ensemble.

Blake is always exploring the edge of so many different pockets of the New York jazz world. A “first call” musician who prefers to call his own shots. Country, soul, “free,” swing, trad jazz, rock, musical traditions from Vietnam and Inda, southern blues...all of it rolling around in his bag but always with an ear tilted towards the joy of it. Despite whatever complexity he digs into, there’s always a dance to his music – never an intellectual remove. Blake writes and plays music that wants to be heard.