Ran Blake: A Blur Of Film Noir, Improvisation

At 74, Ran Blake is a musical legend. Early in his career, the improvisational pianist gained recognition for ignoring boundaries between musical genres. This year he released his 36th album, Driftwoods, and it reflects an unusual, non-musical inspiration. To understand Blake's music you need to understand his obsession with film noir, specifically The Spiral Staircase, which he had me sit down to watch. Blake has seen it thousands of times, and is quick to call it "gothic noir."

"It's not the L.A., drenched city streets with — I hope this doesn't sound sexist — with the blonde, the guy in the rain coat, the pistol shots," Blake says. The Spiral Staircase hedges on horror with a creepy killer, a shadowy Victorian mansion and storms. Blake says he first saw it as a kid when he sneaked into a theater in Springfield, Mass. "I never saw anything like this dark house, and to have the unknown behind the curtain," Blake says. And then there was the music.

Sitting at his black grand piano, Blake plays his interpretation of the soundtrack with his eyes closed as if he's watching The Spiral Staircase on the insides of his eyelids. For Blake, making music is a cinematic experience. "In rehearsal or in concerts doing solo, lights are down; I'm actually seeing visions of what I'm playing about, so when I do 'Birmingham, U.S.A.,' I see Martin Luther King," says Blake.
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