Press/quotes
“Guitarist Ryan Blotnick plays with a warm tone, a relaxed cadence and a smart but unassuming air. Born and reared in Maine, he is now based in Brooklyn. On his engagingly pensive debut, Music Needs You (Songlines), Mr. Blotnick presents a handful of original compositions. There's a sense of something natural unfolding as he and his band mates elaborate on his themes.” (New York Times, 3/7/08)
“A record full of memorable melodies; gentle, reflective tunes such as "The Quiet Space Left Behind" might actually have a shot at becoming 21st-century standards. Blotnick's nods to moody rock and ethereal free jazz peg the 24-year-old bandleader as a vital contemporary voice.” (Time Out New York).
"Blotnick definitely knows how to play the guitar, in the best senses of the word, and he has developed a distinctive personal voice on the instrument. A sticker on the cover of the disc proffers paternal praise from Ben Monder and John Abercrombie. Maybe they couldn’t track down Kurt Rosenwinkel, because those three players are probably his closest established relatives in the modern jazz guitar world. Like Blotnick, they’re interesting to listen to. They often deviate from typical linear (melodic) and vertical (harmonic) thinking, incorporating a much more elastic sense of time, as well as an ear for so-called “atonal” music (both the twelve-tone kind and the free jazz kind, which are actually related). All three have bright minds, judging by their idiosyncratic music and the clever improvisation they feed into it. Their respect for tradition, their regular tugs against it, and the way they draw from other styles all help make their music particularly curious...(Nils Jacobsen, Pop Matters)
"Ryan Blotnick’s guitar playing shows the influence of Jim Hall and Pat Metheny, two guitarists he claims as influences. But Blotnick is edgier than either of those players is assumed to be, and his willingness to take risks shows how much he has learned from his predecessors, both of whom are more experimental than they’re given credit for. Blotnick wrote eight of the nine tracks on Music Needs You, and they are evocative, emotionally stirring compositions. He gives generous solo space to the other members of his quintet, who respond with wit and intelligence. As a composer, Blotnick has absorbed lessons from everyone from Jimmy Giuffre to Ornette Coleman, and his music is cerebral without being cold. Pete Robbins, on alto sax, and Albert Sanz, on piano, blend effortlessly with the guitarist, and Joe Smith is a consistently engaging and responsive drummer with a wonderfully fluid sense of time that underscores the unpredictability of Blotnick’s tunes. Bassist Perry Wortman holds things down solidly but also takes advantage of the flexibility Blotnick’s music offers. On its website, Songlines says that Music Needs You is "not an audiophile recording." To my ears, it sounds excellent, with the instruments sharply focused in a deep soundstage. Music Needs You is a notable addition to this label’s already excellent catalogue" -Joseph Taylor www.goodsound.com (4 out of 5 stars in Musical Performance, Sound Quality, Overall Enjoyment)
"The music is freshly contemporary. It amalgamates clear melodic statements with modern harmonic progressions and offers plenty of headway for improvised adventure....Favoring a hollow-bodied tone, the leader's economical phrasing comes out strong and clear. Rooted in the Jim Hall/John Abercrombie lineage, not only is the influence of his most notable contemporaries evident, but a maturing musical personality...Blotnick and Robbins certainly have a thing going. Who knows, maybe the scene is ready for the next big-hitting sax/guitar team to pursue the Sonny Rollins/Jim Hall, Joe Lovano/John Scofield and Ornette Coleman/Pat Metheny winning tradition...Meet the new, upcoming generation of contemporary jazz's messengers." -Martin Gladu www.allaboutjazz.com
"There is a chamber feel to this CD because of the tightly-knit ensemble playing and the nature of the music. Blotnick's compositions are short musical statements—simple lines using different time signatures—that allow for each track to be mostly improvisation. Robbins' ballad Barceloneta has more of a melody than the rest, but is also loosely structured so as to blend nicely with the rest of the material....Each player has their very good moments. There is some well-done contrapuntal work between Blotnick and Wortman; Smith provides some tasty brushwork and Robbins’ saxophone shines on several tracks. Blotnick is always present and evinces a smooth style of playing....This CD is almost a “concept” piece in the sense that the tracks are very much alike in feeling and ensemble approach" -Marcia Hillman All About Jazz NYC, allaboutjazz.com
"Blotnick's guitar and composition concepts at first seem quite traditional: nothing 'out,' nothing radical. But if you listen for a while, little dissonances creep in. They remind me of Jim Hall, who likes to remind himself to "make musical sense."...he seems as comfortable in his instrument's lower registers as with the high end. The title track again finds Blotnick spending some time in those subtle angularities that bring me back to Jim Hall. There are touches of influences Bertoncini ("Winter Melt") and Metheny ("Wrong Turns") as well. None of this is to say that Blotnick isn't his own man.. While you can't really know this bit of my internal landscape, I can guarantee that you'll still love the music." -Mark Saleski BlogCritics Magazine
"Blotnick is a careful player, but he can fill up some space when he wants to; his stuff is more like pointillism than any kind of broad swatches of color. On “Winter Melt,” the opener, he kind of sounds like Wes Montgomery trying to play artmusic, and that seems to be a good description of a lot of other songs: no showoffy power chords, no squeals, no shrieks, no fire, just cool Zen noodling. On “Barceloneta” he takes his sweet time and lets the band cruise for a while with a complicated spritely melody, before allowing himself to solo for a minute and then he’s done, said all he has to say." -Matt Cibula, Cave 17
"The group's aesthetic encompasses all the classic jazz virtues while sounding fresh and contemporary. In much of it there seems to be a lyrical, almost nostalgic tone reminiscent of the west coast sound, and a bittersweet emotional resonance one might associate with jazz standards of the Ellington/Cole Porter era. Ryan's playing is subtle
yet dynamic; he and Pete Robbins play off the laid-back drive the group generates to deliver eloquent solos." – Tony Reif, founder of Songlines Recordings
"Ryan is a musician with great ideas, a full, rich sound, and a level of skill and maturity beyond his years." – Ben Monder
"This new CD from Ryan Blotnick contains not only beautiful compositions, but really some deep, and honest improvising. I enjoyed it very much, and recommend it highly.”
– John Abercrombie
"Ryan Blotnick's playing has the rare blend of a modern conception with the depth of having explored and absorbed vocabulary of many of the jazz greats. His ideas are clear and straightforward, as well as his compositions." – Steve Cardenas
"Displaying a gracious tone and deep musical sensibility, Ryan's patience sets him apart from his peers." – Michael Blake
“The young Ryan Blotnick assayed a fluid and elegant speech in the development of suggestive themes, with winding harmonies and ample space for improvisation, in which alto saxophonist Robbins was brilliant, mainly with gnawing interventions, and also, although in less occasions, the always stimulating sonorous excursions of monk-ish Sanz…In perfect agreement with autumnal breath that offered the quintet was an attractive concert of crepuscular echoes and burning melancholy.” – Javier Aspiazu, GARA 11/25/07 (translated from Spanish)
“The guitarist Ryan Blotnick presented his new CD last night, in Jimmy Glass (Valencia)…A musical jewel, Ryan creates quality post-contemporary music. All the sounds are unified in varied polyphonies without arriving at rupture, grazing the limit and ending phrases with absolute simplicity- a true delight for the ears and the soul…The formation and the musical restlessness of Ryan Blotnick bring to life twelve-tone and other diverse harmonic worlds. The musicians who accompany him on Music Needs You understand very well this musical concept and they carry out it in perfect harmony and with fluency…Simplicity, quality and much musical culture, an air of the great teachers and with a Danish touch- really, a new and pure air… In summary, Bravo!” – Febrero Loco (translated from Spanish)
"'Music Needs You' is poised to put Ryan on the map for fans of new-jazz...This improvisational recording shows a great deal of promise... What makes his style notable, and sets him apart from other new jazz artists, is his attention and dedication to the melody and his use of standard form in his compositions. For fans of the genre, Ryan Blotnick is a stand out artist and this release is definitely worth a listen. Basically, if the name John Abercrombie means anything to you, give "Music Needs You" a listen." -Mindy Munizaga, Celebrity Café.com; Reviewer rating: 7
