(JPN) Johnathan Blake On Tour with Sadao Watanabe
For this entry we’re at Bluenote Nagoya to hear a drummer whose career is growing by leaps and bounds: Johnathan Blake. Johnathan was among the top 3 winners in the Jazz category of Modern Drummer 2011 reader’s poll.
This counts as Johnathan’s third trip to Japan, where he is currently touring with Sax legend Sadao Watanabe.
Johnathan is using a Maple Absolute Custom kit (out of production) for this tour, with an FP9500C pedal and HS740A hi-hat stand. His snare is a Sensitive Series MSD1455 in Amber Sunburst.
His setup is quite unique, with all instruments mounted low and at about the same level.
The view from chair height.
His snare and toms are at about the same height, and the cymbals are so close that they almost graze the drums. Two felt washers and a well-tightened wing nut ensure that they hardly move at all!
On stage Sadao Watanabe announced that he had wanted to tour with Johnathan, and the tightly-knit performance clearly showed that he had total confidence in Johnathan’s talent.
Once this tour is over Johnathan will be setting off to tour Europe with Omer Avital.
Johnathan Blake is a very busy drummer who’s bound to deliver much more great music in the future!
Visit the official Johnathan Blake website at: http://www.johnathanblake.com/live/