Oliver Lake

   
Artist: Oliver Lake

   Genre(s): 
Jazz
   

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Discography:


   
 Otherside

   Year:    
Tracks: 6

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Oliver Lake is an explosively unpredictable soloist, jolly consanguineous to Eric Dolphy in the ultra-nimble way in which he traverses the total compass of his chief horn, the contralto. Lake's astringent saxophone heavy is his trademark -- stabbing, bluesy, and mordacious in the manner of a Maceo Parker, it was a perfect pencil lead voice for the World Saxophone Quartet, the band with which Lake has made his most enduring mark on jazz.


Lake began playing drums as a child in St. Louis. He number one picked up the saxophone at the geezerhood of 18. Lake received his bachelor's level in 1968 from Lincoln University. From the late '60s to the early '70s he taught school, played in versatile contexts around St. Louis, and lED -- along with Julius Hemphill and Charles "Bobo" Shaw, among others -- a musicians' collective, the Black Artist's Group (Handbag). Lake lived in Paris from 1972-74, where he worked in a quintette comprised of gent BAG members. By 1975, he had (on with most of his BAG colleagues) affected to New York, where he became active on what was called by some the "loft malarkey" scene. In 1976, with Hemphill, Hamiet Bluiett, and David Murray, he founded the World Saxophone Quartet. Over the next deuce decades, that band reached a story of popularity mayhap unprecedented by a free jazz corps de ballet. Its late-'80s albums of Ellington industrial plant and R&B tunes attracted an interview that otherwise mightiness never have establish its way to such an esoteric vogue. Lake continued working as a leader aside from the WSQ, he made first-class small-group albums in the '70s and '80s for Arista/Freedom and Black Saint. In the '80s, Lake lED a reggae-oriented band, Jump Up, that had a significant degree of pop success, though its artistic appeal fades in comparison with his wind cultivate. In the '90s, Lake continued to stretch creatively; a duo album with classically trained pianist Donal Fox sets him release to explore the more fanciful side of his musical personality. Late-'90s concerts with WSQ, his possess groups, and such couple match as the hyper-dextrous pianist Borah Bergman show up that Lake is still on summit of his game.