Pianist and vocalist Xantoné talks music and CK “My musical background started off in the Nigerian church, hearing harmonies, hearing rhythms, and that’s where it all started off for me”.
Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Xantoné Blacq blends different genres like jazz, funk and soul into his own unique sound. Throughout his career, Xan has worked with several big names in the music industry, such as Amy Winehouse, Laura Mvula, Mark Ronson and more. Get to know more about this wonderful musician in the video below.
Yamaha Synthesizer Product Specialist Blake Angelos has over thirty years of experience with music hardware and software. An expert in music technology, Blake has conducted numerous clinics, master classes and presentations throughout the United States, Europe and Canada. In his role as Product Specialist for the Synthesizer Department Blake appears in many product videos and artist interviews, writes many articles for YamahaSynth.com and co-hosts a regular Podcast called “Behind the Synth”.
Before his work with Yamaha, he taught music theory and jazz studies courses at Arizona State University; managed a technology-focused music store in Seattle and was a production supervisor at Microsoft, where he led a team that developed groundbreaking interactive music content for the Microsoft Network. Blake holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Northern Colorado and a Master of Music degree from Arizona State University. Blake currently resides in Bellingham, Washington with his family, and between his travels around the world for Yamaha, he performs as much as possible with several jazz and creative music groups in Bellingham, Seattle and other places in the Pacific Northwest.
