Johnathan Blake – My Life Matters

Aus Wut wird Jazz! Dynamische Tracks mit einer unüberhörbar politischen und sozialen Agenda präsentiert Schlagzeuger Johnathan Blake auf seinem dritten Blue-Note-Album. Produziert hat es Derrick Hodge, mit Saxofonist Dayne Stephens, Vibrafonist Jalen Baker, Pianist Fabian Almazan und Bassist Dezron Douglas sowie den Gästen Bilal und DJ Jahi Sundance hat Blake eine exzellente Truppe für sein Herzenswerk versammelt.

Liner Notes by Rio Sakairi (May 3, 2025)

MY LIFE MATTERS was composed for The Jazz Gallery Fellowship commission in 2017, a few years after the Black Lives Matter movement started. By then, Johnathan had been working as a professional musician for over 20 years with the creme de la creme of the jazz world: Kenny Barron, Tom Harrell, Maria Scheneider, Ravi Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, and Donny McCaslin to name a few but he has yet to make a serious mark as a composer. The commission gave him an opportunity to step up and reveal himself to be the artist that he is. And step up, he did.

Johnathan and I have two children together. To be parents in a world where we are often judged and disregarded not by our character, but by our containers is a task that requires a certain kind of determination and resolve. We wanted our children to believe in the innate goodness of human beings and yet at the same time, we needed them to realize there are things to be aware of and be careful with. It was important to us that Muna (whom you can hear on the I STILL HAVE A DREAM reciting the poem I wrote), and Johna (who plays a little bass solo on WE’LL NEVER KNOW (THEY DIDN’T EVEN GET TO TRY)) grow up without bitterness and resentment. We wanted to nurture their tenderness, light, and joy. We wanted them to be pragmatic and hopeful at the same time. To stand firmly on the ground while shooting for the moon. What a tall order for young kids who are not even sure who they really are and yet, when the world sees you in certain ways for things beyond your control, they have to learn. Quickly.

MY LIFE MATTERS is Johnathan’s prayer. First for Muna and Johna. Then for all the parents and kids who struggle with why and how. He wants to do right by our kids by speaking up and also teach them to protect the kindness and compassion they came into this world with. We live in a moment in time where it seems as though we are separated by deep abysses that run everywhere but I would like to think that it’s all illusionary and temporary. MY LIFE MATTERS, if you open your ears and hearts, will show you how to be the bridges; it will reveal to you the sameness of being human.

 

 

1. Broken Drum Circle for the Forsaken

Johnathan Blake: Drums, Cymbals

DJ Jahi Sundance: Turntables

 

2. Last Breath

Johnathan Blake: Drums, Cymbals

Dayna Stephens: Electronic Wind Instruments

Jalen Baker: Vibraphone

Fabian Almazan: Piano, Electronics

Dezron Douglas: Upright Bass

 

3. A Prelude to An Unnecessary Yet
   Tragically Banal Oratorio

Fabian Almazan: Piano, Electronics

 

4. Requiem for Dreams Shattered

Johnathan Blake: Drums, Cymbals

Bilal: Vocals

Dayna Stephens: Soprano Saxophone

Jalen Baker: Vibraphone

Fabian Almazan: Piano, Electronics

Dezron Douglas: Upright Bass

 

5. In A Brown Study

Dezron Douglas: Upright Bass

 

6. I Still Have A Dream

Muna Blake: Spoken Word

Dezron Douglas: Upright Bass

 

7. My Life Matters

Johnathan Blake: Drums, Cymbals

Dayna Stephens: Electronic Wind Instruments

Jalen Baker: Vibraphone

Fabian Almazan: Piano, Electronics

Dezron Douglas: Upright Bass

 

8. Can You Hear Me?
   (The Talking Drums Have Not Stopped)

Johnathan Blake: Drums, Cymbals

 

9. Always the Wrong Color

Johnathan Blake: Drums, Cymbals

DJ Jahi Sundance: Turntables

Dayna Stephens: Electronic Wind Instruments

Jalen Baker: Vibraphone

Fabian Almazan: Piano, Electronics

Dezron Douglas: Electric Bass

 

10. That Which Kills Us Makes Us What?

Dayna Stephens: Electronic Wind Instruments

 

11. Can Tomorrow Be Brighter?

Johnathan Blake: Drums, Cymbals

Dayna Stephens: Tenor Saxophone

Jalen Baker: Vibraphone

Fabian Almazan: Piano, Electronics

Dezron Douglas: Upright Bass

 

12. Lullaby for An Eternal Rest

Jalen Baker: Vibraphone

 

13. We’ll Never Know
    (They Didn’t Even Get To Try)

Johnathan Blake: Drums, Cymbals

Dayna Stephens: Tenor Saxophone

Jalen Baker: Vibraphone

Fabian Almazan: Piano, Electronics

Dezron Douglas: Electric Bass

Johna Blake: Additional Electric Bass

 

14. Prayer for A Brighter Tomorrow

Bilal: Vocals

Fabian Almazan: Piano, Electronics

All compositions by Johnathan Blake.

“I Still Have A Dream” poem written by Rio Sakairi.

 

JOHNATHAN BLAKE BIO ENGLISH

For Johnathan Blake, music has always been a family affair. The drummer and bandleader’s previous Blue Note album, Passage (2023), was an homage to his father and chief mentor, the late jazz violinist John Blake Jr. The album cover features a sepia-toned snapshot of father and son, taken by his godfather, Eugene Wood. On his label debut Homeward Bound (2021), Blake honored the memory of Ana Grace, daughter of his longtime friends, saxophonist Jimmy Greene and flautist Nelba Marquez-Greene, on the eponymous track, who succumbed during the Sandy Hook massacre.

Now, with My Life Matters, Blake delivers what may be his most personal effort yet. For his third Blue Note album, Blake assembled a group comprising his frequent collaborators — saxophonist Dayna Stephens, pianist Fabian Almazan, and Dezron Douglas on upright and electric bass, with the burgeoning new voice of Houston-native Jalen Baker on vibraphone. Co-produced by acclaimed bassist and labelmate Derrick Hodge, My Life Matters also enlists the talents of DJ Jahi Sundance, the son of venerated multi-reedist Oliver Lake, and childhood friend, GRAMMY Award-winning vocalist Bilal, to bring his vision to life.

In 2017, Blake was awarded a commission from The Jazz Gallery. As part of their annual Fellowship program, it offers mid-career artists financial support and a two-week residency at The Pocantico Center in Tarrytown, NY.

“Right around that time when I was writing this music, it seemed like every other day I was watching or listening to the news, and it was another person of color — another Black and Brown person — being taken away from us at the hands of people that were supposed to serve and protect us,” says Blake. “I didn’t want to become numb to the things that were unfolding in front of me. I wanted to speak up through my music.”

He also drew inspiration from the lessons his parents taught him. “When my sisters and I were growing up, my folks used to always say that if you see injustice happening and you do nothing, you are just as much the problem.”

What resulted are fourteen original compositions, many of them aptly titled by Rio Sakairi, Artistic Director of The Jazz Gallery, who heard the music at its inception. “All of the interludes, and most of the album’s songs, she came up with those titles. I allowed her to sit with the music, and she just understood what I was trying to convey.”

My Life Matters is a musical suite that often oscillates between two opposing forces: present and future, tragedy and hope, reality and conception. Known for pushing the boundaries musically, whether it is with groups like Robert Glasper Experiment or on numerous projects for film and television, Hodge’s hand in the production can be heard and felt throughout the album.

For the opening track, “Broken Drum Circle For The Forsaken,” Sundance injects sounds of a radio dial tuning with Blake’s drumming before we hear a familiar refrain: “We got pulled over for a busted taillight.” These were the words uttered by Diamond Reynolds, who live-streamed the aftermath of Philando Castile’s fatal shooting by police during an unwarranted traffic stop in Minnesota.

“Last Breath” is a nod to the late Eric Garner, who died after an officer placed him in an illegal chokehold. Baker’s command of the vibes is immediately apparent as he opens the track, before a tidal wave of contrasting sounds crashes in, notably the vigor of Stephens on EWI and Almazan’s piano. Much like Garner’s last words (“I can’t breathe”) helped define the Black Lives Matter movement, “Last Breath” reverberates that palpable rallying cry. That contrast is fully explored on the title track, as Douglas’ acoustic upright bass remains stalwart and steady, making a declarative statement that “My Life Matters,” amidst the vibrancy of electronica that charges through.

Each interlude (“A Prelude To An Unnecessary Yet Tragically Banal Oratorio,” “In A Brown Study,” “Can You Hear Me? (The Talking Drums Have Not Stopped),” “That Which Kills Us Makes Us What?” and “Lullaby For An Eternal Rest”) respectively provide a solo moment for each bandmember, lending ample room for them to expound musically in a way they haven’t before.

Perhaps the most vulnerable moments on My Life Matters are the two tracks “We’ll Never Know (They Didn’t Even Get To Try),” which features Blake’s son, Johna, who currently studies bass with Douglas, and “I Still Have A Dream,” a poem recited by his daughter Muna accompanied by Douglas on upright bass. Over a decade prior, Muna listed the names of those slain at the hands of police brutality on trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire’s Blue Note album, the imagined savior is far easier to paint.

While Blake never set out to make a protest album in the vein of Max Roach’s We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, he will gladly take up the charge established by his predecessors as part of this music’s continuum. “Those musicians set the bar very high for us to follow. If we’re not following their lead, then we are doing them a disservice.”

 

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