Oliver Lake

Oliver Eugene Lake ( born September 14, 1942 in Marianna / Arkansas) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.

Lake grew up in New Orleans and initially played drums. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the saxophone. In 1968 he completed a course of study at Lincoln University with a bachelor's degree. From the late 1960s until the early 1970s, he was, among other things, with Julius Hemphill and Charles Bobo Shaw, the Black Artists Group of St. Louis. Between 1972 and 1974 he lived in Paris. In 1975 he went to New York City, where he worked with Julius Hemphill, Hamiet Bluiett and David Murray, the World Saxophone Quartet founded in 1976. In the same year he took part in the Wildflowers with loft sessions. He also worked with Michael Jackson and Gregory founded 1981 Jump Up, a jazz-funk - reggae band, with whom he toured the U.S., Europe and Africa. In 1987, he collaborated on the album The Art of the Saxophone by Bennie Wallace as a guest musician. In the 1990s, he recorded an album with the classical pianist Donal Fox and worked with pianist Borah Bergman. In addition, he also appeared with the singer Bjork, the rock musician Lou Reed, the jazz singer Abbey Lincoln, the String Trio of New York and the rap group A Tribe Called Quest. Overall, he played a about eighty albums.

Lake also composed, among others, in behalf of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra and the Arditti String Quartet, modern classical music. His works have been the New York New Music Ensemble and the Pulse Percussion Ensemble of New York performed by the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Contemporary Players.

Mid-1990s, Lake wrote the solo play Matador Of 1st & 1st, which he performed in 1996 under Oz Scott. In addition, since his youth, he is also active as a painter.