Tabari Lake Quintet

18th Street Arts Center’s eighth 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.