Blake Newman, a New York native and graduate of Berklee College of Music, played piano as a child, began formal lessons on viola and eventually settled on Double-bass followed by bass guitar shortly after.

From the beginning, Blake has had extremely diverse musical interests and experiences. He spent six years performing and recording with West African Mbalax band, Ibrahima Camara and Safal, culminating in a tour of Senegal in 1997.

He Spent four years as a member of MIT’s Balinese gamelan orchestra, Gamelan Galak Tika, performing at New York's Lincoln Center and Winter Garden among other venues. With this group, and under the direction of Evan Ziporyn, Blake appears on the CD, Amok (2000, New World Records). Lately, as a guest artist with the group, he has appeared at Carnegie Hall in 2004 and toured Bali in the summer of 2005. In the spring of 2007, Blake played Double bass on Ziporyn’s newest composition for gamelan and string Orchestra, entitled Bayu Sabda Idep.

In 1999 Blake joined the Bruce Katz Band and spent three years anchoring this hard rocking American roots band. A year after joining the band, he recorded “Three Feet off the Ground” (2000, Audioquest), which garnered much international acclaim. With the Bruce Katz band, Blake performed on multiple U.S. and European tours as well as many blues and Jazz festivals in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Scandinavia.

In 2004, Blake performed in the American Repertory Theater's production of Oedipus, directed by Robert Woodruff with music composed by Evan Ziporyn. He again joined forces with the ART in the spring of 2006 for the production OrpheusX, created by Rinde Eckert and again directed by Wooduff. In August 2007, he traveled to Scotland, where Orpheus X was presented at the International Festival in Edinburgh. In February, 2008, Blake travelled with the ART to present OrpheusX at the Hong Kong International Festival of the Arts. Also in 2008, Blake organized and performed in a jazz trio for the ART production of Julius Caesar, under the direction of Arthur Nauzyciel.

Blake has been performing with the Jeff Robinson Trio, a music and spoken word group, since its inception in 1995. The band has been hosting a “poetry jam” at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, Mass. for the past ten years, released “Next on the Mic” on Rounder Records in September, 2007, and has performed with poets Amiri Baraka, Patricia Smith, Regie Gibson, Askia Toure and Quincy Troupe to name a few.

As a composer, Blake’s musical score was featured in the May, 2007 production of “As if We Live to Bear No Scars”, presented at the Roxbury Center for the Arts.

As a freelance bassist, Blake has performed and/or recorded with David Murray, Ran Blake, Big Jack Johnson, Duke Robillard, Joe Beard, Michelle Wilson, John Sinclair, David Maxwell, Mamadou Diop, Toni Lynn Washington, and Jon Faddis.

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Short Bio:

Bassist with Jeff Robinson Trio, performing with Amiri Baraka, Patricia Smith, Askia Toure, and Quincy Troupe; and recording “Next On the Mic” (released Aug. 2007, Rounder Records). Three years with Bruce Katz, performing on tours and festivals in Canada, Europe, the U.S. and the U.K., recording “Three Feet off the Ground” (2000, Audioquest). Four years with Gamelan Galak Tika, recording "Amok" (2000, New World Records). Played Carnegie Hall and toured Bali  with Galak Tika in 2005. Performed in Oedipus (dir. Robert Woodruff) at the A.R.T., 2004. Performed in OrpheusX (dir. Robert Woodruff) at the A.R.T., 2006, the Edinburgh Int. Festival, 2007, and Hong Kong Int. Festival of the Arts, 2008. Performed in Julius Ceasar (dir. Arthur Nauzyciel) at the A.R.T., 2008. Performed in Paved Paradise: the Music of Joni Mitchell with John Kelly at the Theater  Offensive, Boston, 2007. Composed score for play As If We Live To Bear No Scars, 2007. Toured Senegal with Ibrahima Camara and Safal, 1998. Performances and/or recordings with David Murray, Ran Blake, Big Jack Johnson, Duke Robillard, John Sinclair, Peter Wolf, Butch Morris, Jon Faddis, David Maxwell. B.M. Berklee College of Music. Studied with Gary Peacock, Charlie Haden and Dave Holland.