This program features jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, poet, and visual artist Oliver Lake in two concerts recorded at Roulette: a 2005 trio with Pheeroan Ak Laff, drums and Baikida Carroll, trumpet followed by an excerpt from a 1995 performance with an African percussion trio along with Anthony Peterson, guitar; Belden Bullock, bass; and Gregory Tardy, tenor sax. During the 1960s, Lake worked with the Black Artists Group in St. Louis. In 1977, he founded the World Saxophone Quartet with David Murray, Julius Hemphill, and Hamiet Bluiett. He has also worked with Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille, Bjork, Lou Reed, Amiri Baraka, Ntozake Shange, Mos Def, Arditti and Flux String Quartets, and much more, always blending dixieland, be-bop, soul, rhythm & blues, cool school, swing, avant-garde jazz, free jazz, rock, jazz rock…and beyond.

"Tracking The Odds: The Roulette Concert Archive" is a monthly hour-long radio special produced by Roulette Intermedium (roulette.org) and broadcast in partnership with Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM and Standing Wave Radio. The broadcasts feature selected highlights from Roulette’s New York experimental music space dating from the early 1980s to the present. Thousands of rare, formative, and often unheard recordings by innovators and adventurous musicians populate the archive. Tracking The Odds airs the fourth Monday of the month from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and is archived at wavefarm.org.

Founded in 1978, Roulette operates a 400-seat concert hall on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn with a focus on experimental and unorthodox music and performance across all genres and media. It's archive of thousands of audio and video recordings is currently being restored.