Oliver Lake
b. 14 September 1942, Marianna, Arkansas, USA. Lake's family moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1943. He played in high school, but only applied himself seriously to alto saxophone at the age of 20. Lake worked in R&B and soul bands with Lester Bowie, then formed his own group with Floyd LeFlore (trumpet) and Leonard Smith (drums). In 1968, he received a BA in music education from Lincoln University and taught music in St. Louis schools for three years. During this time he became a founder member of the Black Artists Group (BAG) and co-ordinated exchange concerts with Chicago's AACM. He studied arrangement and composition with Oliver Nelson and bassist Ron Carter. In 1972, he joined other BAG members in Paris, played with Anthony Braxton and explored electronic music. He relocated to New York in September 1973, but returned to Paris to record PASSING THRU, a solo alto saxophone record with a sax/synthesizer dialogue called Whap, in May 1974. Braxton used his position at Arista Records to get Lake a record contract and wrote a sleevenote for HEAVY SPIRITS (1975). The album was a masterpiece of chilled modernity, including three tracks of improvised alto against scored strings. Lake subsequently lightened his approach, to mixed results. A band with Michael Gregory Jackson (guitar) and Paul Maddox (drums, later Pheeroan akLaff) played startlingly original music (1976-8), spikey avant garde classical sonorities threaded with pliant saxophone. PROPHET, recorded in 1980 for the Black Saint label, was a tribute to Lake's idol Eric Dolphy, while the next year's CLEVONT FITZHUBERT, was classic free-bop. Later signed to Gramavision, Lake attempted to come on as a pop band (JUMP UP), but despite spirited playing they never seemed to quite get the hang of the reggae rhythms they attempted to use. Lake had played in a saxophone quartet brought together by Braxton for his NEW YORK, FALL 1974 and in 1977, with David Murray replacing Braxton, they called themselves the World Saxophone Quartet. By the mid-'80s the group were firm favourites at international jazz festivals. Lake meanwhile led small groups that often included Geri Allen, akLaff and Fred Hopkins, producing shining, incisive music that seemed to bring together all the diverse threads of his career. In the late '80s he was also playing with Reggie Workman in the bassist's own Ensemble and in the collective Trio Transition, and he can also be heard in electrifying form on Marilyn Crispell's live 1991 CIRCLES.