Bands

The Ryan Blotnick Group is a group that aims to squeeze the last drops of life out of jazz, and use them to create music with the same die-hard intensity, taking advantage of rhythms and forms offered by other musical worlds.  The core group is Pete Robbins (alto sax), Blotnick (guitar), Albert Sanz (piano), Perry Wortman (bass), and Joe Smith (drums).  Recent US formations have included Eivind Opsvik, Jacob Sacks, RJ Miller, Jeff Williams and Thomas Morgan.

Ryan Blotnick/Peter Van Huffel Quartet played in Dublin and London this year with Simon Jermyn, Jeff Williams, Robin Finker and Sean Carpio.

The Michael Blake Band is with Michael Bates, Jesse Stacken, Russell Lacy and myself.

The Hump is a funk-soul band featuring the great Nigel Hall.  We revive the music of Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, James Brown and others.  We play special events and clubs in New England.   

Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble is a 14-piece afrobeat band featuring frontman Kaleta, who played with Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade for a number of years before moving to New York.  We have just completed a new album and are gearing up for the Fela Kuti tribute evant at BAM café on November 30th, 9pm.  We also play Brooklyn Public Library (2pm) and the Rose (tba) on December 16th.

Pete Robbins and Centric is a 5-7 piece group consisting of some of the most frightening musicians of the New York Avant Garde.  With a rotating cast of rhythm sections including Dan Weiss, Tyshawn Sorey, Take Toriyama, Thomas Morgan and Eivind Opsvik, and a frontline of Pete Robbins, Sam Sadigursky, Mike Gamble, Eliot Cardinaux, and myself, this band always packs a big punch.

We have performed the music of Carlo Gesualdo as part of a grant from Chamber Music of America/Doris Duke Foundation.  Pete adapted the music of this little known and underrated baroque composer for the septet with as many as seven independent voices going at the same time.  It was fantastic.  Centric plans to tour Spain at the end of March.  

My danish trio, Blotnick/Osgood/Westergaard recorded an album last summer, which is unreleased for the time being. We play mostly improvised and original music with Kresten Osgood on drums and Jonas Westergaard on bass.

Michael Blake and Free Association

MB - saxophones
Avishai Cohen - trumpet
Marcus Rojas - tuba
Briggan Krauss - bari and alto sax
Ryan Blotnick - guitar
Frank Kimbrough - piano
Ben Allison - bass
Daniel Freedman - drums

I also play with occasionallly with Mads Mouritz and the Bleeding Hearts, the Pat Wolfe Quartet, and a Danish band called the Band of the Universe.