Return To Jazz
In 1994 Blackman made her first recording with a working group and called the album Telepathy because of the tight communication in the band. "I wanted to do a quartet record because of the amount of space you get with fewer players," she said in Telepathy's liner notes. "It's intimate, but more dimensional than a piano trio. I'm really into this sound, and it was nice to play with a group that was a group. You can't help but have a better feel when the musicians know each other, are headed in the same direction, and have the same goals. You can make most everything work. You get chances to play a lot of colors, and really stretch your ideas."
In 2005 Blackman released Music for the New Millennium on her Sacred Sounds Label. "It’s rooted in tradition, but it’s not traditional music. It’s explorative, very creative, very expressive, and we really try to expand any ideas we have that everything is played over the forms, but we like to stretch it, and really see the colors and make the music grow and move," says Blackman. "We experiment — but it’s never free. Everything is written out. I have charts for all the songs. We expand on what’s there, and stretch harmonics and note choices."
Blackman continues to make her home in Brooklyn in New York City. "It’s always such an amazing place, with every level of musical accomplishment, you can see complete beginners and you can see innovators. That’s why I live in New York. Not only is it tough, but all the greatest people have come through New York," says Blackman. Blackman prefers to play jazz in small, intimiate clubs. "It's an acoustic situation. You are close-knit and you are creating one hundred percent of the time -- so to me it just doesn't really get any better that!" Blackman also travels extensively conducting drum clinics. In September 2007, she made a tour of South America, teaching clinics in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, and on November 30, 2007, Blackman and her quartet performed at Art After 5 at the Philadelphia Art Museum.
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