Deep within (OK, down a flight of stairs beneath) the University of Iowa’s Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center is an anechoic chamber. The antithesis of an echoey cave, the ultra-soundproofed space prevents sound waves from bouncing off the wall or floor, creating a useful environment for audio research. The chamber, built during construction of […]
Blake Shaw
Posted inArts & Entertainment
For Blake Shaw, no gig is more rewarding than teaching — but two teaching gigs won’t keep him from the stage
Several weeks ago, Iowa City-area musician Blake Shaw shared some exciting news with folks who follow him on Instagram, @theeblakebass. “Starting this fall,” he posted, “along with my work at Cornell College, I’ll also be taking over the Kirkwood Community College jazz department! My main responsibilities will be directing the big band and one other […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The miraculous hard work of blooming where planted: Tending the garden of Iowa music
Tonight, it feels like New York in Elray’s. Maybe it’s the absence of live music for so long? Or maybe it’s the unexpected blend of looping pedal, expansive jazz bass lines and heartfelt covers converging into what is Blake Shaw’s new pandemic-constructed solo show? Certainly, there is something magical about the great sound system and […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Coralville Community Food Pantry offers music, poetry and dance in exchange for support fighting food insecurity
Over the last several years, the food insecurity rate in Johnson County was dropping. According to interactive maps from the organization Feeding America, it went from 13.9 percent in 2016 down to 8.2 percent in 2018 and maintained that in 2019. But a projection the site ran for the impacts of COVID-19 predicted a rise […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Art in the time of COVID-19: Blake Shaw
This series, Art in the time of COVID-19, highlights musicians and artists in eastern Iowa whose life and work have been upended by the spread of the novel coronavirus in the state. If you would like to recommend someone to be featured in this space, please reach out to Little Village. Blake Shaw, bassist Blake […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Blake Shaw gets romantic: 14 songs on his Valentine’s Day playlist
Musician Blake Shaw is a familiar face, and voice, in Iowa City. He’s been performing in town for the past 16 years, more than half his life, and living here for 10 of those. If you frequent the city’s formidable jazz circuit, you might have seen him playing out with the Blake Shaw Quintet, Blake […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Blake Shaw — ‘it happened.’
There is a long-standing tradition in jazz of performing pop standards, and those songs became kind of a lingua franca for jazz musicians. Iowa City jazz bassist and vocalist Blake Shaw — whose latest album, it happened., is a collection of standards — explained the tradition
