* En anglais uniquement
A fine journeyman player,
Jerry Blake had a solid career before healthy problems permanently forced him out of music.
Blake, who went to school in Nashville, started on the violin before switching to alto and clarinet. After playing with the Sells-Fioto Circus Band in 1924, he was stranded in Chicago where he soon joined Al Wynn's group.
Blake worked with Bobby Lee and Charlie Turner's Arcadians and then spent much of 1928-29 in Europe with Sam Wooding. He played with
Chick Webb, Zach Whyte's Chocolate Beau Brummels,
Don Redman (1933-34) and then back in Europe with
Willie Lewis (1934-35). Returning to the U.S.,
Blake gained some recognition for his work with
Claude Hopkins,
Fletcher Henderson (1936-38) and
Cab Calloway (1938-42) where he ended up being the musical director. However after short stints with
Count Basie,
Earl Hines,
Lionel Hampton and
Don Redman during 1942-43,
Jerry Blake (who never led a record date of his own) suffered a mental breakdown from which he never recovered. He spent much of the rest of his life in a mental institution. ~ Scott Yanow