Dreaming Of the Masters

To quote the late Frank Zappa, "Jazz isn't dead. It just smells that way."

I use the quote with affection because I had written jazz off as dead as recently as a couple of years ago.  But as some of the posts here attest, artists like Jaimie Branch and Matana Robers are keeping the flame not only alive but refreshed and renewed, and masters like Oliver Lake are still very much with us and producing essential new music.  

Lake is best known for his tenure with the World Saxophone Quartet, and I was lucky enough to have seen Lake and the WSQ on several occasions back in the 80s and 90s, including a memorable set on the shores of Lake George in upstate New York.

Here's Oliver Lake performing with two drummers (Bill McClellan and Reggie Nicholson) at the Bang On A  Can Marathon at the Brooklyn Museum on May 7, 2017.