Oliver Lake: Making Justice And Love A Reality

Oliver Lake has been at the forefront of creative saxophone music for nearly a half-century. It is partly because of this history that on June 26, 2022, Arts for Art’s always compelling Vision Festival will celebrate Lake’s career with an evening dedicated to his work. While Lake will participate in the festivities, surprisingly, he will not pick up his horn. That includes his performance with the ensemble reflected on his latest album, JUSTICE – The Vocal Works of Oliver Lake  (High Two, 2022), with the Sonic Liberation Front. 

One group at the Vision Festival will be the most recent incarnation of the World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ). A preeminent part of his musical legacy, Lake co-founded the WSQ in 1977 with Julius Hemphill, David Murray, and Hamiet Bluiett. Lake’s piercing alto and soprano played a central role in the WSQ’s unique decades-long fusion of elements from free jazz, R&B, funk, and South African music. Partly due to its unique instrumentation featuring four saxophones, the WSQ carved out a musical space still underexplored by most artists. Their success seemingly surprised even its members. When asked the moment he knew the ensemble was creating something special musically, Lake recently told this writer that it was not until he witnessed the audience’s response at their first performance. “We got the sense that the World Saxophone Quartet was going to be significant after we did our first concert in New Orleans. Kidd Jordan put it together,” Lake recalled. “The response to our performance was so tremendous that we knew the quartet had to keep working together. A light bulb went off in our heads that we had a unique sound. And the rest is history,” he continued. 

Another notable pairing from Lake’s career is that with bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille, formally known as Trio 3. The group’s esteemed veterans of avant-garde music, who have separately worked with everyone from John Coltrane to Cecil Taylor to Anthony Braxton, came together organically rather than through some preordained plan. According to Lake, “[Reggie, Andrew, and I] realized we were calling each other to work on so many different projects that we should just combine into one group.” Their combined firepower ultimately held Trio 3 together for thirty-five years. Workman and Cyrille will also perform at the Vision Festival’s dedication to Lake. 

As Lake’s saxophone plays such a central role in both the WSQ and Trio 3, one would naturally expect Lake to perform on his horn at the Vision Festival, but it is not to be. The reality is that the seventy-nine-year-old chooses not to bring his horn to the event, noting: “[m]y playing is not as strong as it used to be. I had to deal with some health challenges and didn’t want to embarrass myself with my playing.” Instead, Lake will add poetry and conduct ensembles. If the performances that evening are anything like the music captured on JUSTICE, the absence of Lake’s horn will make the music no less compelling. 

Though an esteemed composer, JUSTICE is Lake’s first project to comprehensively emphasize vocals. He has previously arranged pieces for Björk, Lou Reed, and Abbey Lincoln, but JUSTICE forces Lake to take these skills to another level. “I’ve worked with voices on a limited basis, whether a project I did for the Vision Festival several years ago or special limited projects with individual singers. But I had never thought of recording with voices previously. It was a challenge to write for voices in such a comprehensive way. But I enjoyed it.”

The result is a recording equally empowering and contemplative. Of the countless vocal records released annually, JUSTICE stands out because it dares to do something different. It is a rare vocal album appreciable by even those- this author included- who generally shy from vocal releases. In part, JUSTICE‘s power comes from the flexibility and malleability of its vocal parts. By eschewing lyrics in favor of wordless tones, Lake allows the singers to better shift between different instrumental-like aesthetics. On “What”, the singers mirror the bass line, providing a funky groove over which a wild saxophone and yearning violin consistently stretch further and further outward. On “Ain’t Nothin’ Real BUT Love”, the singers sound more like a string quartet behind the poet, allowing the narrator’s powerful language to hit harder. And with the title track, they sound as though additional horns were added to the ensemble.  

A cynic could claim that Lake turns to vocals to make up for his inability to play saxophone, but that view is misguided. Composing for instruments not typically within his palette would prove more laborious to the artist, not less. As Lake noted, “Composing for four voices is significantly different than four saxophones as I did for the World Saxophone Quartet. Since I played saxophone, I’m very familiar with the instrument’s range. With voices, I had to work harder to ensure I stayed in a proper register and didn’t write something out of bounds. The voicings are very important, and it is a bit more difficult to use these new languages to express myself creatively.”

Even more importantly, Lake desires to look beyond a particular type of sound, regardless of the instrument that makes it or the genre box into which someone tries to force it. “I remain open to all forms of music. And often, different sounds are more connected than people think anyway. One of my sons, Gene [Lake] is a gifted drummer in what people usually call jazz. My other son [Jahi Sundance] is an excellent DJ. Some people may see a huge difference musically between what they each do. But, ultimately, they use the same creativity and are part of a shared continuum of improvised music.”

Lake’s scope even looks further than music, as evidenced by the significant role his poems play on JUSTICE. “[Painting, poetry, and music] are ultimately all one thing,” Lake noted. “All three elements have at their core improvisation and creativity. I feel very fortunate that I’ve been able to blend these three elements throughout my career.”

As Lake notes, his breadth in scope is hardly new. In the late 1960s, he co-founded the Black Artists Group. St. Louis’ answer to Chicago’s AACM approached all art forms, not solely music. Different methods of artistic expression- whether visual art, dance, or poetry – were treated as music’s equals. JUSTICE‘s emphasis on poetry places it as a direct descendant of the Black Artists Group. As Lake put it, “The Black Artists Group was my school. That is where I learned to put mixed forms together and not be hesitant about my choices. I’ve done that throughout my career, whether for my own albums or writing vocal pieces for The Sonic Liberation Front.”

No one would mistake a painting for a musical recording, yet them seem to impact their audiences in much the same way. What is it about all media forms that resonate with their receiver, whether the listener or viewer? To Lake, the commonality lies in the power of art to uniquely say something on a deeper level than words themselves can convey. “Throughout history, music, really all art, has had the power to change the world. As cliché as it may sound, my aim as an artist is world peace. Our album is named JUSTICE and has a song that focuses on love. Ultimately, we need both. It’s the artist’s role to make justice and love a reality.” But are we getting closer to these goals as the years pass? “Well, it’s six steps forward and six more back. It seems each time we move forward, we also move backward. But we’ll get there someday. We’ll get there.”

JUSTICE – The Vocal Works of Oliver Lake will be available on June 10, 2022, on High Two Records. It is available for pre-order on Bandcamp.

More information on this summer’s Vision Festival honoring Lake and Wadada Leo Smith can be found here.

Additional information on Oliver Lake is available on his website.