Oliver Lake, Winter JazzFest, Unity Jazz, The Guggenheim

Oliver Lake's creativity as an alto saxophonist, poet, big band leader, composer, and visual artist is as mesmerizing as the Manhattan Skyline.

- RONALD E. SCOTT

Like the structured Skyline's whispered stories, Lake's music and art share a vibrant voice of harmonies, scattered melodies, and rhythms that capture the ambition and resilience of city life which pulls you into the present while pushing you into the future.

On Jan. 8, Oliver Lake presents the "Now I'm Breakin' Glass" opening gallery exhibition at The Jazz Gallery (1158 Broadway Ave.), 6 p.m. Lake's theme represents a poem he wrote in honor of his mother. "It emphasizes all the various jobs my mother had to do to survive," says Lake. "She owned a restaurant, pool hall, and a car wash but she also broke glass that she sold." His poem starts, "my momma usta' break glass/I say what chu' doing .../she breakin' glass/she say — we get 25 cents for every bushel basket of glass," from his book of poetry, "If I Knew This & More" (published 2022). "This poem explains how my mother taught me to hustle and survive."

Lake features 18 pieces of different media that illustrate art as an inventive oneness. His eclectic approach is best expressed by his popular poem "Separation": "put all my food on the same plate!" Whether composing commissioned works, arranging, collaborating with poets Amiri Baraka and Ntozake Shange, leading his own organ quartet, big band, and collaborative ensembles the World Saxophone Quartet and Trio 3, Lake views it all as parts of the same whole.

The "Now I'm Breakin' Glass" opening is free and open to the public, and will be on view through April 2026. For more info, visit jazzgallery.org.

Now, in its 22nd season, the annual Winter JazzFest has maintained New York's reputation as "the city that never sleeps" with its multiple venues in Brooklyn and Manhattan presenting over 100 groups from around the world, who play into the cold hours of the morning.