Meet Oliver Lake

by Craig Jolley
November 4, 2004

St. Louis musical rootsMy mother owned a restaurant with a juke box that had a lot of blues, rhythm and blues. That may have piqued my interest. When I was in high school I got interested in the drum and bugle corps. A lot of members of the corps were playing jazz. That really got me into wanting to play jazz. I met a lot of young musicians who were adept at their instruments at an early age. ...

Oliver Lake: Jazz is a Music of Exploration

by Nenad Georgievski
November 4, 2004

Not too many artists today can encompass so many different interests and musical styles within their work as is the case with Oliver Lake. He is a poet, painter, performance artist and also one of the better-known representatives of modern jazz. As a musician, he started his career in the 60's as part of the Black Artist Group, but he is mostly known for his work with the World Saxophone Quartet, a group that has seen unprecedented success for a ...

Oliver Lake Steel Quartet: Dat Love

by Joel Roberts
July 2, 2004

Despite its unconventional instrumentation, Oliver Lake’s steel quartet is actually one of the adventurous alto saxophonist’s more conventional endeavors. The group, which features Lyndon Achee, one of the few pan steel virtuosos on the jazz scene, offers what might be called AfroCaribbean soul jazz, an accessible yet provocative blend of funk and soul jazz with tropical rhythms.

Lake has delved into Caribbean sounds before, most notably with his reggae-oriented ‘80s group Jump Up. But the current group sticks more firmly ...

Oliver Lake: Upwards & Outwards

by Nic Jones
March 13, 2004

Oliver Lake has always had an innate grasp of musical tradition that extends beyond jazz to encompass other areas of African American musical expression, and the effect of this on his music has always been beneficial. Allied to this have been two other virtues, namely his abiding fascination with the work of Eric Dolphy, perhaps unsurprisingly not a highly influential figure, and an instrumental conception deep enough to enable him to appreciate the diversity inherent in the alto sax, the ...

Oliver Lake Big Band: Cloth

by Russ Musto
July 25, 2003

Few musicians in the history of jazz have wielded as wide and diverse a palette as Oliver Lake. Cloth is his first recording as leader of a big band, an endeavor he has undertaken in order to focus more attention on his considerable skill as a composer and arranger. The opener, “Cloth Two," is a reworking of the leader's tune “Cloth," which he first recorded with his Steel Quartet. The composition and arrangement display the tonal influence ...