[6] Michael began his professional career in Vancouver, performing with local jazz musicians Hugh Fraser, Phil Dwyer, John Korsrud, Jim Chivers and Kate Hammett-Vaughan.

In 1986 Michael received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to live in New York City where he would study saxophone and theory with David Liebman.

[10] Blake also played saxophone and clarinet on Lurie's TV series Fishing with John and film scores for Get Shorty and Excess Baggage.

As well as his affiliation with The Lounge Lizards, Michael worked as a sideman in the 1990s with Jack McDuff, Charlie Persip, Gil Evans Orchestra, and singer Henry Fiol.

[20] Blake played soprano saxophone for the theme to The Backyardigans, a children's TV program produced by the Nick Jr. Channel with music by Evan Lurie and Doug Wieselman.

[23] Blake served as musical director for the Neil Sedaka '50 Years of Hits' Celebration at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall on October 26, 2007.

[24] During the summer of 2008 Michael joined the band of Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava on his promotional tour for New York Stories (ECM Records).

[25] In 2009, The Michael Blake Quartet, including bassist Ben Allison, guitarist Steve Cardenas and drummer Rudy Royston, performed at City Winery's Wine & Jazz series.

[30] Under Kresten Osgood's leadership, Blake toured Denmark in 2002 and recorded a live album, Hammond Rens featuring organist Lonnie Smith.

[33] Collaborating with a younger generation of improvising musicians including Brad Turner, Chris Gestrin, Dylan van der Schyff and JP Carter, Blake's Canadian trilogy convey his compositional strengths as a story teller.

[36] Fulfillment (2016) is about the ill-fated 2014 Komagata Maru incident in which Blake's great-granduncle Henry Herbert Stevens, a staunch anti-immigration MP, played a disruptive role.

Created as a work of atonement, the album includes guest performances by cellist Peggy Lee, tabla player Neelamjit Dhilon and guitarist Aram Bajakian.

He also performed in faculty concerts with colleagues including, Enrico Rava, Greg Osby, Kenny Werner, Steve Cardenas, Antonio Sánchez, Eric Harland and Ben Perowsky.

[39] In 2015 Michael recorded Red Hook Soul (2016) for Ropeadope with Tony Scherr, Erik Deutsch, Ari Blotnick, Moses Patrou and Tim Lüntzel.

In 2020 Michael received a Canada Council of the Arts grant to conceive and record Dance of the Mystic Bliss, a concept album dedicated to the artists late Mother.

After the Covid-19 lockdown was lifted in New York City, Blake assembled a new group of musicians from Brazil, USA and Canada called Chroma Nova and recorded the music.

[42] He arranged 10 pieces of original music for the album which features a brass band with two tuba players Marcus Rojas and Bob Stewart, trombonist Clark Gayton, trumpeter Steven Bernstein and drummer Allan Mednard.

[46] The music was mixed by Kingdom of Champa engineer Scott Harding and features electric guitarist Guilherme Monteiro, string players Michael Bates, Chris Hoffman and Skye Steele and Brazilian percussionists Mauro Refosco and Rogerio Bocatto.