Oliver Lake, Baikida Carroll and Pheeroan akLaff in Sydney in October

Oliver Lake Trio: Oliver Lake, Baikida Carroll and Pheeroan akLaff
9.30pm, Thursday October 27 at The Basement. $35/$30 SIMA members.

Oliver Lake and Baikida Carroll were born around the mid 1940s. They are of the generation of free players who followed Ornette Coleman, Coltrane, Cecil Taylor et al. Making up a stellar visiting trio is drummer Pheeroan akLaff, born in 1956. The light, according to alto saxophonist Lake, went out after Coltrane’s death in 1967, as far as critical attention to the vital stream of music they represent was concerned. Yet all three are doing very well. Of course free jazz is not all that they play – although the three demonstrate the best traditions of free interaction, particularly in this intense and dynamic trio.

Lake and trumpeter Carroll grew up in St Louis – whence came Miles Davis, Clark Terry, Harold ‘Shorty’ Baker, Lester Bowie and many other great original musicians. There was a line of trumpeters in St Louis, famous for their singing, expressive sounds and styles. Carroll is needless to say a beautiful player. Mike Nock (who played with him in America) is a great admirer. Perhaps even more beautiful now despite being stricken with Bells palsy in the 1980s. It took Carroll three years to develop a new embouchure. His 1990s recordings are an inspiration. Lake was a foundation member of B.A.G. (Black Artists group), in parallel with the better known Chicago collective AACM. Carroll followed within a year.

Here is a key to their success. B.A.G brought together local African American experimentalists in visual arts, theatre, poetry, film and jazz. While Carroll and Lake were influenced by the modern jazz greats (Paul Desmond and Jackie McLean were early Lake inspirations), they sought a wider spectrum of vivid and exotic colours. They also played with and were influenced by blues artists, and this, along with an appreciation of early jazz, led them to develop large, singular and emotionally charged colouristic sounds on their instruments. They also studied 20th century classical music. Lake’s album Shine, which uses electric guitar as well as an unusual string quartet of three violins and cello), is a far more natural entwining of jazz and post serial music than most Third Stream projects.

Now this all stood them in good stead when they were called on to collaborate in diverse projects. A list is prohibited by space, but the fact that Lake has arranged music and played for Bjork, Lou Reed and jazz/loving pop and funk star Meshell, and collaborated with symphony orchestras will give you the drift. Carroll has distinguished himself in theatrical productions ranging from King Lear to music for more obscure playwrights and poets, such as Larry Neal. In a recent televised Bjork production you might have caught Lake leading a saxophone trio. Lou Reed did, and rang Lake immediately.

akLaff has worked in Africa with drummers and dancers and has recorded with an exhaustive list of contemporary and mainstream names. He is a great drummer who has combined textures, accents and polyrhythms from free jazz with a propulsiveness informed by recent movements in youth music. He has also played with our man Nock.

Let’s talk about sound. The influence of McLean can still be heard in Lake’s tone – a dark gold which can take on a glaring edge – but he has developed it uniquely. His notes can be so big and solid they stand in their own space with a kind of industrial strength, reminding me of the acrid yellow you see on some of the great building cranes angling their giraffe necks over the city. He can also produce a transparent amber sound, and at low volume an unsentimental sweetness. This is a tone with the presence of those old saxophone masters who still sounded immediate and modern in the 1950s and early 1960s.

References to the bluesy groove and power of those players is integrated with intervals drawn from the jazz avant- and atonal concert music. My son played Oliver Lake to the superb local jazz and classical saxophonist Martin Kay, who jumped into the air!

Baikida Carroll is a great albeit very personal lyricist whose often light, dancing lines might lead to spears of high power. Lyricism in this area should not surprise. Don Cherry and Lester Bowie were highly lyrical. His most recent quintet albums Marionettes On A High Wire and Door Of The Cage show a mastery of the post bop idiom by all players, including Pheeroan akLaff the band’s long-time drummer, but there is also much freedom, engrossing play with time and a unique lift. Make no mistake, they can swing!

Carroll’s tone is very special. Sometimes he seems to put a hard bright skin over a warm, flugel-like core. You can’t get enough of this tone. If he reminds me of anyone, even obliquely, it is of great underrated trumpeters Dupree Bolton and Benny Bailey. Well, there’s something there that recalls them; much that is very different. Even Wynton Marsalis has praised him. Lake, akLaff, Carroll are giants from an area much more appreciated overseas, particularly in Europe, than in Australia. This opportunity should not be missed.

9.30pm, Thursday October 27 at The Basement. $35/$30 SIMA members.