Home » Jazz Articles » Oliver Lake
Jazz Articles about Oliver Lake
Oliver Lake: Zaki
by Jeff Stockton
Jazz music continually tries to outpace the long shadow cast by its past. On the one hand, it's the music of the vanguard, an art form built on a spirit of risk-taking and experimentation. On the other, the progressive spirit started with Charlie Parker and extended by Ornette Coleman (and several others) seemed to have stopped short with John Coltrane's death in 1967. But in the mid 1970s, Switzerland's hatHUT label persevered, survived and even thrived in waters markedly outside ...
Continue ReadingOliver Lake: Zaki
by Chris May
Reissued on the excellent grounds that it contains music which deserves to be listened to today, Zaki was recorded live at Jazz Festival Willisau in 1979. Although saxophonist Oliver Lake had been a member of soon-to-be festival favorites, the World Saxophone Quartet since 1977, he was still little known outside the U.S. and Willisau was one of his first important European gigs. In 1979 he performed there with WSQ and with his trio.
Both performances made Europe sit ...
Continue ReadingOliver Lake: Lake/Tchicai/Osgood/Westergaard
by Ivana Ng
It is often difficult to transcribe onto a CD the electricity of a live performance, but alto saxophonist Oliver Lake does it with ease on Lake/Tchicai/Osgood/Westergaard. In 2003, Lake completed a brief tour of Denmark with tenor saxophonist John Tchicai, drummer Kresten Osgood and bassist Jonas Westergaard. They immediately went into the studio afterwards, the product of which is this release on Lake's Passin' Thru record label. The disc is an invigoratingly spiritual record whose compositions range from avant-garde swing ...
Continue ReadingOliver Lake Quartet: Live
by Ivana Ng
If you listen to a record long enough, you may find yourself liking it more than you did on first listen. But listening to this live session from the Knitting Factory in May, 2001 repeatedly still does not help Native American wood flutist Mary Redhouse's trilling, whistling, flute playing, which strangely enough often sounds like her own howling vocals. “Naisiai is a traditional Navajo chant that melds Redhouse's wailing vocals and meandering flute notes. As the second ...
Continue ReadingOliver Lake: From Which Freedom Continues
by Kurt Gottschalk
It's not a term to toss around, but sometimes it fits. Oliver Lake, one could say with little worry of hyperbole, is a renaissance man. Best known as an original member of the longstanding World Saxophone Quartet, he is also an organizer with a sense for business--from founding the Black Artists Group (BAG) in St. Louis in the '60s to running his own label, Passin' Thru. He's a painter and a poet, a monologist and observer of the human condition. ...
Continue ReadingTrio 3: Time Being
by AAJ Italy Staff
La quarta incisione del Trio 3 (Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman e Andrew Cyrille), nell’arco di quasi un decennio, evidenzia la grande attenzione posta dai tre formidabili musicisti al processo creativo e alla necessità di darne testimonianza in modo ponderato, andando in controtendenza rispetto ad un mercato sempre più affamato ed inflazionato da prodotti di routine. A così nobili intenti non corrisponde però quell’album clamoroso che la caratura, la storia ed il rigore morale e artistico dei protagonisti poteva far supporre. ...
Continue ReadingA Welcome Reunion with Oliver Lake, Gregory Jackson and Pheroan Ak Laff
by Erik R. Quick
Bernard Lyons, the affable English organizer of the continually outstanding concert series at Baltimore's An Die Musik, welcomed the audience and introduced the duet of saxophonist Oliver Lake and guitarist (Michael) Gregory Jackson. Although drummer Pheroan Ak Laff was present for the first set, “he has a hygiene issue, went to his hotel to shower and does not have a watch. With a mixture of laughter and alarm, the small audience applauded and the musicians in attendance began their ...
Continue Reading
