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It is fascinating to me that Ran Blake, a legendary musician and educator, would use film as a scaffold for creative thought and musical inspiration. As a film professional and fellow aficionado of film noir, I have great pleasure in hearing how mood, contrast, narrative drive, and doomed hopes could inspire albums of music that I've loved, and propel music students to expand their creative approach and vocabulary. - Thomas Robotham teaches filmmaking, cinematography, and screenwriting at Emerson College and is the author of Cinematic Storytelling: A Comprehensive Guide for Directors and Cinematographers (2021). With his long face and full beard, the pianist Ran Blake has the look of an Old Testament prophet. The darkness audible in so much of his music and a six-decade-long fascination with film noir suggest something more than a passing familiarity with the devil. Blake has been a passionate moviegoer since his Springfield boyhood. Again and again, his music has paid tribute to the movies. There may or may not be anyone alive who knows more about old movies of the noirish sort. There is definitely no one who loves them more, let alone who's as gifted a composer and pianist. - Mark Feeney writes on the arts for The Boston Globe. If indeed all the arts aspire to music then the unusually imaginative Ran Blake has provided a service to a dozen or so of his favorite movies by composing musical impressions of his reactions. More than a little night music is the stirring result. . . . His music is a fitting, worthy tribute to his very highly developed cinematic taste. -Andrew Sarris was the film critic of The Village Voice for many years and author of The American Cinema (1968); he contributed these liner notes to Ran Blake's album Film Noir (Arista records, 1`980).

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Ran Blake has created a unique niche in contemporary music as an artist and educator, in a career that now spans six decades, With a characteristic mix of classical, blues, gospel, popular standards, film noir, and world music traditions, Blake's singular sound has earned a dedicated following all over the world. His legacy as a pianist and composer includes 50 albums on some of the world's top jazz labels. He regularly offers concerts and masterclasses throughout the United States and Europe, where he performs to sold-out audiences. His achievement has been recognized by numerous awards, including a MacArthur ""Genius"" Fellowship in 1988 and two Guggenheim grants.Born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1935, Blake grew up in Suffield, Connecticut. He received a B.A. from Bard College (1960) and later studied at the Lenox School of Jazz with John Lewis, Oscar Peterson, Max Roach, and Bill Russo. During those years he became close to Thelonious Monk and his family. Gunther Schuller, then President of New England Conservatory, invited him to join the faculty in 1967; when the Department of Third Stream Studies was founded five years later (now known as the Contemporary Improvisation Department), Ran served as chair from 1973 to 2005. His teaching focuses on aural training, long-term musical memory, and film noir. In 2010 his book Primacy of the Ear was published; it brings together insights from decades of teaching and performing. Shimmering Shadows: The Music and Life of Ran Blake, by Janet McFadden Ran Blake has created a unique niche in contemporary music as an artist and educator, in a career that now spans six decades, With a characteristic mix of classical, blues, gospel, popular standards, film noir, and world music traditions, Blake's singular sound has earned a dedicated following all over the world. His legacy as a pianist and composer includes 50 albums on some of the world's top jazz labels. He regularly offers concerts and masterclasses throughout the United States and Europe, where he performs to sold-out audiences. His achievement has been recognized by numerous awards, including a MacArthur ""Genius"" Fellowship in 1988 and two Guggenheim grants.Born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1935, Blake grew up in Suffield, Connecticut. He received a B.A. from Bard College (1960) and later studied at the Lenox School of Jazz with John Lewis, Oscar Peterson, Max Roach, and Bill Russo. During those years he became close to Thelonious Monk and his family, and also studied with Mary Lou Williams. Gunther Schuller, then President of New England Conservatory, invited him to join the faculty in 1967; five years later, Schuller founded the Department of Third Stream Studies (now known as the Contemporary Improvisation), and appointed him chair; he headed the department from 1973 to 2005. Ran Blake's teaching focuses on aural training, long-term musical memory, and film noir. In 2010, he published Primacy of the Ear, which brings together insights from decades of teaching and performing. His biography, Shimmering Shadows: The Music and Life of Ran Blake, by Janet McFadden, appeared in November 2022. Gard Hartmann was born in Boston, graduated from Dartmouth College (B.A.) and the University of California, Berkeley (M.A.), and has had a varied career as a writer, teacher, and community organizer for over thirty years. He served as New England Conservatory's Director of Institutional Support and was a member of the President's Executive Committee throughout the school's seven-year, $115 million capital campaign.

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