Mr Blank is an up-front Garage/Jazz outfit consisting of Tudor Moore on Cornet and Trumpet and Steve Miller on Keyboards, song writing and Technical expertise.
Tudor Moore was born in 1974, the son of a Jazz Trumpet soloist and an Opera and Jazz singer. He was given his first horn for Christmas at the age of four....a Cornet. He received extensive tutoring from his father who had dreams of his son becoming a world class player. His vision is about to become a reality!
By the tender age of eight Tudor was playing around with samplers, keyboards and trumpet arrangements. Aged 10 he joined a brass band and within twelve months he was the Trumpet and Cornet soloist. At this time he started to get into his Father’s record collection in a big way, picking out Donald Byrd, Earl Klugh and Ronnie Laws and Don Ellis as favourites who have gone on to influence his style and sound. He also started to receive tuition from Dave Browning, one of the UK’s most respected Horn players and session men.
At the age of 15 Tudor quit his regular Brass band gig, formed his own Jazz band and started to explore House music He also started a regular correspondence with his hero Don Ellis’ Mother who sent him some of Don’s writing and unreleased material.
By the age of 16 Tudor had composed and performed his first major musical work, “Continuum”, influenced by the New England minimalists. Following the success of this work he was commissioned to write music for Dance and small classical groups. At 17 years of age Tudor wrote and recorded ambient and experimental music with a poet, playing hand built keyboards and trumpet. He scored and produced music for productions of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and Lorca’s “Blood Wedding” at the National Students Theatre in Chester. He also began organising audio/visual happenings throughout the UK including a number of sculpture installations! In May 1992 Steve Miller discovered Tudor and persuaded him to direct his talent towards Mr Blank.
Steve Miller brings years of professional experience to Mr Blank through his work with Steel Pulse, Bassdance, Lee Perry, Gil Scott Heron, Edwin Starr, Gino Washington, Third World, Alvin Davis, Karl Pitterson and Mike Kelly of Spooky Tooth and The Only Ones throughout the UK, Europe and the USA. Steve has been involved in soundtrack and Dance production in Hollywood. He cites his major influences as Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, William Orbit, Herbie Hancock, Frank Zappa and Isaac Hayes.
Mr Blank's first release was an EP for Ripe in early '93 which was an experimental blend of Jazz and Garage beats which received great reviews all round. Following the success of the EP, Mr Blank went back into the studio to record more tracks for an album, eventually finishing with 15 tracks! A wide variety of different musicians contributed towards the finished album, most notably Pigstyles (Rap) and Clive Stewart (Sax) who appear on six of the tracks including the single "Out Of Order".
Steve Miller then put a band together in order to take Mr Blank on the road. The 9 piece Blank Orchestra have translated the album to an energetic and unique live show, proving that Mr Blank is certainly not limited to the studio. The Blank Orchestra features Mikey Wilson on drums who has performed with M-People and Luke Smith on keyboards from Hot Chocolate.