Jane Ira Bloom: Reverence for the Collaborative Environment

As a composer, saxophonist, improviser, collaborator, and educator, Jane Ira Bloom's career spans over 50 years.  Some of her accolades over this time have included garnering the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award for lifetime service in jazz, the Charlie Parker Fellowship for Jazz Innovation, and being the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA Art Program in which she was honored by having an asteroid named after her by the International Astronomical Union, given the appellation asteroid 6083janeirabloom.  

Reaching deeper into collaborating, creating, and improvising, Bloom has teemed up with drummer-percussionist-composer-improviser Brian Shanker Adler for a series of acoustic duets on their present release Once Like A Spark.  After years of rehearsing and performing together, Bloom and Adler decided to go into Acadia Studios in Portland, Maine in July 2025, where they recorded 14 tracks laden with sonic adventures, abstract soundscapes, and improvised dialogue, many of which are first takes.

Bloom exposes about the title track, "This was Brian's composition so I'll let him answer that."  She continues, "When we listened back to the tracks that we recorded in the studio, 'once like a spark' really stood out to my ear and I suggested to Brian that it would make a great album title for a recording that was filled with first takes."

When reflecting about her collaboration with Adler, she proclaims, "I love the openness, the fearlessness that's in the air when we play together. It's a very special and rare kind of collaboration."

A molten brew of saxophone flares and pulsating percussive activity, the two move in a constant state of flux, from the curt rhythmic throbbing of "Just Like This" to the exotic chimes of "Shan Dara" and the slinky gait of "Psalm."  The flouncy rustles of "Be Cowboy" slide into the cruising phrasing of "True City," followed by the lofty crests and swirls of "Song for Khan," a penetrative piece that commands the listener's undivided attention.  The pair display inspiration from the music of Southeast Asia and India, demonstrating a symbiosis that attracts listeners unfamiliar to the cultures.

"I think the rhythmic vitality of gamelon music from Bali and Java and the expressive power of instrumental voices in North and South Indian music traditions connected in me," she reveals. "Hearing Brian on gongs and tabla brought all that to the surface. There's so much to draw on from musics of the world and collaborating with another musician who has that knowledge to draw from can be exhilarating."

A significant element in Bloom's performance is her ability to play her improvisations concisely and sharply focused, specifically detailing the essence of the piece.   She portends, "Well, I think as time has gone on, I've gotten more comfortable with 'less as more.'  Don't have to play as many notes to get at the right ones. Having a voice, a sound is everything."

Ruminating about her impetus for creating, she maintains,"I think I always enjoyed improvising in the moment. The propulsive rhythm and feel from the jazz tradition has always been with me. I listened early on to vocalists and trumpet players as well as saxophonists, so it informed my sense of phrasing in a different way."

Her choice to play the saxophone has a metaphysical aspect to it, as she provides, "The saxophone was said to be one of the instruments that was closest to the human voice. The soprano sax, in a way, chose me.  When I was starting out, I played alto but realized that I could do things on the soprano that I couldn't express on alto. It became my voice."

After finding her voice through the soprano saxophone, she notes, "I've been writing original music from the start of my career. I started my own record label and publishing company, Outline Records & Outline Music, in 1976. For me, writing and performing original music went hand in hand with playing the saxophone and didn't somehow come afterwards. It was all one thing. I guess you could say that playing and recording original music was inseparable from my voice as a soprano saxophonist."  

Her expedition into recording and performing original material included networking through collaborations as a means to practice and sharpen her craft.  At a time when remote learning and performing in cyberspace was the sole option, Bloom continued collaborating.  She participated in a large ensemble performance at the United Nations that linked improvising musicians in Korea, China, New York, and San Diego via online.  The project was directed by composer Sarah Weaver.  

She explains about the experience, "For many years I've been fortunate to collaborate with composer Sarah Weaver and bassist Mark Dresser in large ensemble formats to perform remote concerts of new music with musicians around the world in real time. It's been an experience for me to learn that no matter how far away musicians may be in physical locations around the world, when we try to connect in real time via the net, that our ears reach out even more intensely to hear and play with one another."

Another experience that has shaped and sharpened Bloom's creative and collaborative leanings is being a professor at the New School's College of the Performing Arts School of Jazz & Contemporary Music in New York City.  She describes, "I began teaching at The New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music in 1998.  I was at a point in my performance career where I wanted to stay in New York City and felt that I had something to offer students from my professional experience."

She speculates, "I generally have the perspective that the best and deepest learning comes from experience 'doing' and I try to stress the kind of creative thinking in the moment that helps improvisors make choices informed by composition and their interior voices."

A versatile artist, Jane Ira Bloom does not merely fill her days with making music and collaborating with fellow musicians, she shares, "For many years I've had a daily qigong practice that helps me mentally and physically."

Similarly to the practice of qigong for the mind, body, and spirit, Bloom and Adler are singularly bound by their agile imaginations, moving the melodic excerpts up and down, sideways, diagonally, and every other way.  Always on the lookout for more opportunities to collaborate, create, and conceive, Bloom pushes the perimeters of improvised music, oftentimes charting the expedition on the first take of the adventure, remaining focused and succinct.

 Visit:  https://www.janeirabloom.com