OLIVER LAKE STEEL QUARTET CONTINUES FUNKY ISLAND GROOVE ON “DAT LOVE” SET FOR MAY 4th RELEASE ON PASSIN’ THRU RECORDS
Multi-Reedman’s 3rd Outing on Own Label with Steel Drum Virtuoso Lyndon Achee Includes Soulful Covers of Classics by Oliver Nelson, Horace Silver & Mary J. Blige
“I’d never considered performing with a steel drummer before a German producer approached me about recording with one and I met Lyndon Achee, the ‘pan’ player everyone I consulted recom-mended,” Oliver Lake said when asked about the genesis of the Steel Quartet he formed in 1998. Dat Love -- Lake’s third recording with his Caribbean flavored band whose line-up is rounded out by electric bassist Reggie Washington and drummer Damon Duewhite -- is set for May 4th release on the veteran reedman’s label Passin’ Thru Records. Highlights of the deeply grooved CD include imaginative interpretations of modern jazz classics by Oliver Nelson (“Stolen Moments”) and Horace Silver (“Señor Blues”) and of the Mary J. Blige-Stevie Wonder hit “Time” blending infectious island rhythms with jazz, blues and R&B elements. These tracks -- and funky originals like Lake’s “Double Space,” “2G,” “Song For Jay” and “Dat Love” as well as “Venus” by the Chicago-based saxophonist Ari Brown -- are all infused with the ”searing, impassioned tone” (Newark Star Ledger) and the “tensile brilliance, coil and spring [and] pirouette flash” (The Wire) that distinguish Lake’s sound and the melodic lyricism Achee coaxes from his traditional tropical instrument.
A natural follow-up to an earlier foray into World Music made during the early 1980s with his ground-breaking jazz-roots-reggae ensemble Jump Up, Lake’s Steel Quartet colorfully complements his other musical activities. Those currently include composing for and leading a 16-piece big band and memberships in the cooperatives Trio 3 (with bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille) and the internationally renowned World Saxophone Quartet he co-founded in 1977 with Julius Hemphill, Hamiet Bluiett and David Murray. (The WSQ celebrated its 27th anniversary with the release in 2004 on Justin Time Records of Experience, a collection of Jimi Hendrix covers.). “A great deal of the music the Steel Quartet plays is in the finger-snapping, foot-tapping zone and we continue to create that kind of groove on ‘Dat Love,’” Lake said. “And while most of my other recordings feature originals by me or other composers, one thing I do with this band that I haven’t been doing recently is play standards.”
Lake has composed or arranged music for the Steel Quartet that takes advantage of his and Achee’s abilities to alternately complement and contrast each other, both melodically and rhythmically. “On my piece ‘Double Space’ I have the steel pan playing a counter melody to the saxophone and then we meet at a certain point; the beauty of the ‘Stolen Moments’ arrangement is having both instruments playing its timeless theme in unison,” he said. [Lake had an opportunity to meet and study with Nelson, whom he describes as a “great mentor who inspired me to compose and pursue a career in jazz,” during the late 1960s when the composer-arranger-bandleader was teaching composition classes Lake took at Washington University in St. Louis. This was roughly the same time Lake -- who had lived in St. Louis since 1946 when he moved there at age two from his home town of Marianna, Arkansas -- co-founded the legendary multi-disciplinary collective Black Artists Group (BAG) with fellow musicians Hemphill and Floyd La Flore and the poets Ajule and Malinke.]
Lake chose Dat Love’s two other covers – of Silver’s “Señor Blues” and of Wonder’s and Blige’s “Time” – because he was curious how each would sound performed by the ‘pan’-saxophone front line. “Horace’s tune has a great, catchy melody that was fun to arrange and I just love the bass line of ‘Time’ which stuck with me after my daughter gave me a copy of Mary J’s CD and wanted to see how it sounded as an instrumental,” he said. Bassist Washington – an original member of the Steel Quartet who has been an integral part of bands led by Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Cassandra Wilson, Jean Paul Bourelly, Uri Caine and Roy Hargrove – and drummer Duewhite, who replaced Pheeroan ak Laff in the band and whose percussive pyrotechnics have powered bands backing such global superstars as the South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and Calypso king Harry Belafonte – provide these and Dat Love’s other tracks with a suitably funky foundation.
One of the most versatile creative musicians on the international scene, OLIVER LAKE is a true ren-aissance man whose experiences extend far beyond his standing as a master jazz instrumentalist, improviser and composer. His skills as an arranger have enhanced the music of pop diva Bjork, rocker Lou Reed and the rap group A Tribe Called Quest. The depth and breadth of Lake’s musicality have also enabled him to express himself in a variety of musical contexts and he has performed with a veritable rainbow coalition of artists including hip-hopper Mos Def, pop star Me’shell Ndegeocello, Navajo vocalist Mary Redhouse, Korean kumongo player Jin Hi Kim, and Chinese bamboo flautist Shuni Tsou. An accomplished poet, painter and performance artist, Lake has also received critical acclaim for his solo theatre piece for saxophone and spoken word Matador of 1st & 1st, and for his collaborations with actress-author Anna Devere Smith and writer, law professor and political commentator Patricia Williams, the poets Amiri Baraka and Ntozake Shange and the choreographers Ron Brown and Marlies Yearby.
A respected educator, Lake taught at Monmouth (NJ) College from 1999-2003 as part of Meet The Composer’s New Residences Program; recently conducted a 3 week residency (partially funded by Chamber Music America) in Tucson, Arizona, as part of The Transcendence Initiative [dedicated to the artistry and spirit of John Coltrane], for which he is artistic director; and is in the midst of a 2-month residency at the Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis helping students at various local schools create musical theatre pieces as part of a program sponsored by the McKnight Foundation.
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