About
“…wit, soul, and an organic-sounding complexity that only a master can pull off.”
-Giovanni Russonello
A provocative young musician and composer, Blake Meister has worked with a range of virtuoso performers, including:
Gary Thomas, Larry Willis, Katharine McPhee, Louis Hayes, Jack DeJohnette, Ahn Sook Sun, Ralph Peterson, Ingrid Jensen, Warren Wolf, Jeremy Pelt, Sean Jones, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Dennis Chambers, Marc Copland, Victor Lewis, and many others.
Touring and recording with Larry Willis, in his Heavy Blue band, Blake developed in the modern jazz tradition. He appears on Willis’ final outing, I Fall in Love Too Easily, on HighNote records. Blake honed his style and musical dialect working regularly with Gary Thomas, including Thomas’ large ensemble, Pariah’s Pariahs. He appears on Thomas’ album At Risk, on Inner Circle Music, for which he also wrote the liner notes.
Also on Inner Circle, Blake released his debut as a leader, Septagon, to critical acclaim. Septagon was named Album of the Year by both CapitalBop and the Washington City Paper.
Blake received several Governor’s Citations from Maryland, garnering three Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council - for composition in 2018 and 2012, and for performance in 2015. He was a finalist in the Bass Europe and the International Society of Bassist competitions.
Sharing music through education, Blake was on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music — the nation’s oldest conservatory — for a decade. Before that, he began as faculty and program director for the Peabody Preparatory division, where he founded the jazz department. He has taught at several other colleges and programs.
Born and raised in the great city of Philadelphia, Blake was exposed early to a wide range of music. Starting out playing electric bass, he entered college with virtually no experience on the double bass. He went on to earn a master’s degree in orchestral performance from Catholic University’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, under a full-tuition scholarship.