Tabari Lake 
Make Jazz Fellow Residency:
January 2 – March 30, 2019

18th Street Arts Center’s eight Make Jazz Fellow is Los Angeles based bassist Tabari Lake. A native of St. Thomas USVI, Lake grew up admiring the bassists in the local bands that would play during carnival festivities. He began his musical education at the local public school, first on steel pan, then clarinet, and finally finding his voice in the electric bass. Lake’s continued musical growth led him to relocate to the mainland to continue his education and dive deep into classical, and jazz studies. Lake quickly learned that he existed in a dichotomy: both jazz and calypso, both classical and hip hop, both foreigner and American.

Tabari has bachelor degrees of Bass Performance and Contemporary Writing & Production and a master’s degree in Contemporary Performance (Production Concentration) from Berklee College of Music. He has performed with artists such as Terence Blanchard, Dion Parson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Joey Alexander, Victor Provost, Russell Gunn’s Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra, Tia Fuller, and Sting among others.

During his Make Jazz Fellow Residency, Tabari Lake will debut his first full-length work, set to explore the conditions of Virgin Islands identity and politics through the lens of the young USVI native. Lake hopes to illuminate the beauty of the sights and sounds of “America’s Paradise,” and to spark dialogue about what it means to exist in a constant duality: as a carrier of your culture and as a contemporary artist.

A culminating concert of Tabari Lake’s Make Jazz Fellow Residency will take place at The World Stage on Saturday March 9, 2019 at 8 PM. For free tickets, RSVP here.

Sponsored by the Herb Alpert Foundation to honor and support jazz artists, 18th Street Arts Center annually hosts its Make Jazz Fellowship, awarded to a jazz composer for a three-month, fully funded residency. This opportunity is for an individual jazz artist to advance or complete a body of original compositions. For three months the Make Jazz Fellow lives and works among artists in sunny Santa Monica, California. The award supports the artist by providing a monthly stipend, a furnished live-in studio, and arranged opportunities to inspire Jazz students in partnership with Los Angeles-area colleges and universities.

Artist Website