Dance Clarinets Performs Oliver Lake

Greenwich House Music School’s Dance Clarinets is a jazz orchestra comprised of twenty musicians (clarinets with percussion, piano, and bass), drawn from professional musicians from all over New York City who perform together with GHMS students. The group was founded ten years ago by woodwind faculty member J. D. Parran. Dance Clarinets will perform five compositions arranged for the ensemble by the saxophonist and composer Oliver Lake. The compositions to be performed are Philly Blues, Maasai Moves, Bouncing Back, Cloth 2, and Dedicated to Dolphy. Over the course of the 2020-21 school year, the musicians recorded these pieces both at the Music School and from home. The filmed performances were edited by ensemble members Ismael Baiz and Lee Odom. Support for this performance was provided by Continuum Arts & Culture, the Brooklyn Arts Council, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Saxophonist and composer Oliver Lake‘s artistic vision remains daring, unique, and uncompromising. From his role as founder of The Black Artist Group in 1968, he has immersed himself in the creation of art in all disciplines. As a longstanding and preeminent saxophonist in the progressive jazz scene, Mr. Lake has thrived during his long and storied career. He continues to work with several brilliant and creative minds, such as his Organ Quartet and the big band groups the World Saxophone Quartet, OGJB, Tarbaby, and notable collaborators such as Flux String Quartet, Myra Melford, Roscoe Mitchell, Vijay Iyer, Geri Allen, Meshell Ndegeocello, and many others. Mr. Lake has curated and participated in the City Of Asylum’s Jazz Poetry concerts for more than ten years. Lake has been a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, has received commissions from the Library of Congress, and in 2006, was honored to receive the Mellon Jazz Living Legacy Award at the Kennedy Center. Most notably, Mr. Lake was selected to receive the prestigious 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award.