Jazz Police - Oliver Lake Celebrates 70th with Organ Quartet, Big band and Trio 3 with Guest Geri Allen 9/13-16

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Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Oliver Lake Celebrates 70th with Organ Quartet, Big band and Trio 3 with Guest Geri Allen 9/13-16

Written by Ronaldo Oregano

Sunday, 09 September 2012

Oliver Lake

70 years young, Oliver Lake brings four monster groups to the jazz Standard for four nights to celebrate his birthday - begining on Thursday, September 13th with the Oliver Lake Organ Quartet featuring Oliver Lake on alto sax, Jared Gold on organ, Freddie Hendrix on trumpet, and Chris Beck on drums.. On Friday, September 14th hear a rare appearance by a group that has been opening ears since at least 2003 with the album Cloth (Passin’ Thru Records). “The band is the ideal vehicle for Lake’s juxtaposition of straightonahead swing and the kind of energy that comes from the sun (Ra).” (Harvey Sliders, JazzTimes.com). The Olier Lake Big Band includes: Oliver Lake on alto saxophone, conductor; James Stewart, Mike Lee on tenor saxophone; Darius Jones, Bruce Williams on alto saxophone; Jason Marshall on baritone saxophone; Freddie Hendrix, Waldron Ricks, Peck Allmond, EJ Allen on trumpet; Aaron Johnson, Stafford Hunter, Al Paterson, Terry Greene on trombone; Yoichi Uzeki on piano; Robert Sabin on bass; and Chris Beck on drums. On Saturday, September 15th and Sunbday, September 16th you can hear theOliver Lakes Trio 3 with the peerless rhythm section of Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille and the invaluable addition of pianist Geri Allen. This group has released such outstanding CD as At This Time and The Oliver Lake Trio Live on the artist’s own Passin’ Thru label.

Geri Allen © Andrea Canter

In its four and a half–star review of this Oliver Lake Organ Quartet's 2011 album Plan, Down Beat wrote: “Lake comes out explosively from the opening title track, on which he employs his acerbic tone and sidewinding phrases in unison with trumpeter Freddie Hendrix before blasting off into a vigorous improvisation. Adding to the restive energy is Johnathon Blake’s propulsive drumming and Jared Gold’s squawking, almost pianistic approach to the Hammond B3. When the quartet explores a groove as on the bluesy ‘Backup’ or the Latin–tinged ‘After Touch,’ the rhythmic and harmonic foundation shifts unexpectedly and the front–line horns soar.”

Oliver Lake is a world-renowned composer, saxophonist, flautist and bandleader. He is a co-founder of the internationally acclaimed World Saxophone Quartet, which recently celebrated its 26th anniversary with an album of Jimi Hendrix pieces for Justin Time Records. He tours and produces records with the World Saxophone Quartet and his own Oliver Lake Steel Quartet and Oliver Lake Big Band. A recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, Lake is one of the most heavily commissioned composers to emerge from the jazz tradition. Commissions include works for the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Wheeling Symphony; and commissions by the Library of Congress, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Composers Forum and the International Association for Jazz Organizations, just to name a few. The most-commissioned composer in the history of Meet the Composer, he recently completed a three-year project funded by that organization's New Residencies Program in New Jersey and Arizona.

He has collaborated with poets Amiri Baraka and Ntozake Shange, choreographers Ron Brown and Marlies Yearby, actress/author Anna Devere Smith and writer/law professor Patricia Williams, as well as hip-hop artist Mos Def and pop star Me'shell Ndegeocello. Also a painter and poet, he had exhibited at the Montclair Art Museum and his book of poetry is entitled Life Dance. In 1988, Lake founded Passin' Thru an organization dedicated to fostering, promoting and advancing the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of jazz, new music, and other disciplines in relations to music.

The Jazz Standard is located at 116 East 27th Street (btw. Park and Lex.) 212-576-2232 www.jazzstandard.net

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