Late-breaking news #1:

Ran will perform this Thursday night (April 19) during a tribute to the music of the late Jaki Byard. The concert, in the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall at 8 p.m., is free and open to the public.

Byard taught improvising and arranging at the Conservatory for 10 years. Ran and Jaki were friends and colleagues who in 1981 collaborated on the piano duo album Improvisations on Soul Note Records. The pair performed two concerts in Italy during the production of the album.

Ken Schaphorst, Chair of Jazz Studies and Improvisation, will conduct, and Anthony Coleman, who joined the NEC faculty this year, is the featured pianist. On the program will be many of Byard's original compositions, including Aluminum Baby, Two Five One and Up Jumps One, as well as his arrangements of Satin Doll, St. Thomas and God Bless the Child. Ran plans on playing his composition Only Yesterday.

Here's an update to an item we ran six months ago about finding Ran's albums. Some details have changed, due to albums selling out or becoming available from new sources:

Since Ran has recorded for many labels, some of which no longer exist, the albums' availability breaks into several categories.

First off, 13 albums are available on CD through ranblake.com: All That Is Tied, Duke Dreams, Epistrophy, Horace is Blue, Improvisations, Indian Winter, Painted Rhythms: Vol. 1, Round About, Short Life of Barbara Monk, Something to Live For, Sonic Temples, Suffield Gothic, and Unmarked Van.

Next, these five are available from other labels or distributors: Breakthru from ImprovArt, Masters of Different Worlds from Mapleshade, You Stepped Out of a Cloud from Universal France or Amazon, Wende from Amazon or Sunnyside Records, and Newest Sound Around from Amazon or Half.com.

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Late-breaking news #2:

Ran will perform solo at the Center for Improvisational Music in Brooklyn on Thursday, May 17, at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $15 ($10 for students). The center is at 295 Douglass Street, between 3rd and 4th Avenue. Visit the website for detailed directions.

This show was added onto Ran's appearance as part of a panel on jazz and film at Lincoln Center in New York City on Wednesday, May 16. Rutgers Professor Lewis Porter will lead the panel, which includes Ran, the trombonist/composer Wycliffe Gordon, and the video artist Andrew Demirjian. The evening will include performances by the participants.

The panel, which starts at 7 p.m., takes place in the Irene Diamond Education Center. Tickets are $17.50, and they can be purchased at the box office (Broadway and 60th Street) Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., or ordered online through jalc.org (for an additional $7.50 in service charges).

March, February, January, December, November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April

We'll see you in May.
--Steve

Vol. 3, No.4