Ran Blake (b. 1935) will perform a special concert solo in Cambridge entitled "Ghosts."  From his early love of film noir, the much-heralded 1962 debut album with Jeanne Lee the “Newest Sound Around,” from taking care of Thelonious Monk’s children after their apartment fire, getting caught up in theresistance after a coup in Greece in 1967, to hishighly influential teaching at the New England Conservatory,  pianist Ran Blake’s life sparkles with incredible vignettes which he will share and explore in his music for this performance. In a career that spans seven decades, Ran Blake hascreated a unique niche in improvised music as an artist and educator.With a characteristic mix of spontaneous solos, modern classical tonalities, the great American blues and gospel traditions, and themesfrom classic Film Noir, his singular sound has earned a dedicatedfollowing all over the world. His innovative teaching method emphasizes aural training — the “primacy of the ear” over the reading of a printed score – combined with developing long-term musical memory as the key creating a personalstyle of music-making. Blake has received the prestigious MacArthur “Genius” award, a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition, and in 2022 a “Satchmo”award from the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation.His musical legacy includes 61 (and counting) albums on some of theworld’s finest jazz labels, as well as over 50 years as a groundbreaking educator at Boston’s New England Conservatory. He is the author of two books: Primacy of the Ear (with Jason Rogers, 2010) and Storyboarding Noir: Ran Blake on Film (with Gard Hartmann, 2022), and is the subject of a 700-page biography by Janet McFadden, Shimmering Shadows: The Music and Life of Ran Blake(2022).  Musicians of note who have studied with him at NEC include Don Byron, Matthew Shipp, Dominique Eade, Sara Serpa, Ricky Ford, and John Medeski. For more information visit ranblake.com   QUOTATIONS 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 Film Noir album (Arista/Novus, 1980).   Ran Blake’s music constantly changes and surprises. It is equally at home in the conservatory or a night club but it ideally belongs in an after-hours bar at the dark end of the street, situated between a modern art museum and a deserted movie theatre, haunted by the ghosts of a thousand black and white films. The music may evoke the culture of the past but after all these years Ran Blake is still the newest sound around.                                  — Dominic Power is an author and for twenty-two years was Head of Screen Arts at the National Film & Television School (UK).   Sitting at his black grand piano, Blake plays his interpretation of the soundtrack with his eyes closed, as if he's watching The Spiral Staircase on the insides of his eyelids. For Blake, making music is a cinematic experience. Early in his career, the improvisational pianist gained recognition for ignoring boundaries between musical genres. History, memories, montages, flashbacks, scenes from films, from the news, from Blake's own life: They're all in his music.                                    — Andrea Shea is a Senior Arts& Culture Reporter for WBUR, National Public Radio