Johnathan Blake & Pentad

The "ultimate modernist" (NPR Music) Johnathan Blake has the ability to "make himself heard in any context." (DownBeat). In addition to his own releases on Blue Note as a leader, he has contributed to several releases by other Blue Note artists with his strong, smooth pulse and breezy precision.
His new album My Life Matters, released in August, is a suite of music that focuses on the idea of speaking up when we see injustice happening. Those who remain silent become part of the problem. The suite was commissioned by the Jazz Gallery in New York City. Blake's band Pentad is a quintet of musicians whose expressions inhabit the mystery of time and space. "The name represents us as five individuals coming together for a common goal: to make the most honest music possible," says Blake, who assembled the band with the intention of composing a fuller, more explicit chordal sound than he's used in his previous projects. The result is an intuitive, dense sound that allows for spontaneity and is based on trust.