The Tone, the Bloom, the Cow

Year 2000: Two tenor saxes on a small stage, a bass stretched like rubber, and somewhere in the set: a song about a cow.

Seamus Blake – the warrior of the Bloomdaddies – let his saxophone speak like a wry philosopher on three espressos: clever, warm, a little off track, but always on point – rich in irony, subtly mocking his own seriousness. His sound? A mix of Coltrane and manhole cover, Broadway and brick wall – soft as butter in attack, but with vigour.

A New Yorker with a Canadian passport? Absolutely. Unafraid of groove and never losing sight of jazz, even during funky excursions? Certainly. And there's always room for a wink.

If cows could fly – they would likely take off to the sound of Seamus Blake's saxophone.

The photographic sketches for "Doppelkopf" date from the year 2000.

Next: Chris Cheek ➜