Saxophone | b. 1942

Oliver Lake came up believing musicians should run their own institutions, not just play in someone else's. Born in Marianna, Arkansas in 1942 and raised in St. Louis, he co-founded the Black Artists Group there in the late 1960s, a collective built deliberately across disciplines, with poets, dancers and visual artists alongside musicians, all organising their own performances and recordings outside the existing jazz industry. He carried that ethos to New York in the mid 1970s, becoming part of the loft jazz scene and recording "Heavy Spirits" (Arista/Freedom, 1975), an album that moved between a quintet, a trio and a solo alto piece across two cities. In 1977 he co-founded the World Saxophone Quartet with David Murray, Julius Hemphill and Hamiet Bluiett, an all-saxophone ensemble with no rhythm section that became one of the most influential bands in creative jazz of the era. Lake has continued to lead his own groups, paint, write poetry, and run the non-profit Passin' Thru organisation ever since, and remains active as a performer.