Christine Correa & Ran Blake: Jazz at the Kitano Hotel - NYC August 16 & 17, 2019

Christine Correa and Ran Blake return to Jazz at Kitano for another wonderful pair of evenings hosted by jazz manager and enthusiast Gino Moratti. Correa and Blake are very excited to share material from their up and coming release, When Soft Rain Falls a dedication to Billie Holiday, and revisiting some material from their latest album, Streaming, plus new music 

    

Friday August 16th and Saturday August 17th 2019 -Two sets each night at 8 & 10:00 PM / Jazz at Kitano Hotel / 66 Park Ave 

New York, NY 10016  

Lady in Satin was Billie Holiday's penultimate recording released in 1959, the year of her death. Although the repertoire is derived from the Great American Songbook, Lady in Satin is unlike any of Holiday's previous recordings as she specifically chose to be accompanied by the lush orchestral arrangements of Ray Ellis and personally hand picked each song based on its lyrics. 

Brooklyn-based Red Piano Records is proud to announce the release of When Soft Rain Falls . . . featuring pianist Ran Blake and vocalist Christine Correa paying tribute to the great Billie Holiday, 60-some years after the release of her Lady in Satin recording. 

In contrast to the grand orchestral arrangements of the original album, Correa and Blake interpret the music in a intimate duo settng. Holiday holds a special place in the hearts and souls of these artists; a place where her music, her sound and her aesthetic resonates deeply. On When Soft Rain Falls  . . ., Correa is able to capture the raw emotion, drama and the intimacy that is associated with Holiday; the way she bends and slurs her notes, her rhythmic phrasing and the liberty she takes in interpreting these songs. All the songs from Lady In Satin are re-imagined, and in addition to the twelve songs from the Holiday album, Correa and Blake include "The Day Lady Died," a Blake composition that has the great Frank O'Hara poem superimposed over it, as well as solo piano versions of "Big Stuff," "Practice Makes Perfect," and a solo voice version of "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone". 

Ran Blake has created a unique niche as an artist in improvised music. He has incorporated and synthesized several divergent styles and influences into a single innovative and cohesive style of his own, ranking him among the geniuses of the genre. On When Soft Rain Falls . . ., their sixth release together over a 40-year friendship, Blake and Correa reach new heights in terms of artistry, vision and expressiveness.

   

More on Ran Blake and Christine Correa:

In a career that now spans five decades, pianist Ran Blake has created a unique niche in improvised music as an artist and educator. With a characteristic mix of spontaneous solos, modern classical tonalities, the great American blues and gospel traditions and themes from classic Film Noir, Blake's singular sound has earned him a dedicated following around the world. In the tradition of two of his idols, Ellington and Monk, Blake has incorporated and synthesized several otherwise divergent styles and influences into a single innovative and cohesive style of his own, ranking him among the geniuses of the genre. Ran Blake is a recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" grant. He was the founder and long-time chairperson of the Third Stream Department (currently called Contemporary Improvisation Department) at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA.

Christine Correa, originally from Bombay, India, has been involved in a variety of improvisational contexts and is currently on the faculty of The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program at Columbia University in New York City.  She has been widely recognized as a leading interpreter of the works of a range of modern American and European poets as set to music by some of today's most innovative jazz composers, such as Frank Carlberg, Nicholas Urie, Sam Sadigursky and Steve Grover, among others. Correa has also recorded and/or performed with artists such as Steve Lacy and John LaPorta and appeared at numerous festivals, concert halls and clubs in the US, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America and India.  Correa is a long-time resident of Brooklyn, NY.