Azar Lawrence is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader based in Los Angeles whose big, open tone is at once exploratory and soulful. With a career that stretches more than half a century, he has worked alongside jazz legends including
McCoy Tyner,
Miles Davis,
Woody Shaw, and
Elvin Jones.
Lawrence has done extensive session and live work with blues and R&B performers including
Muddy Waters,
Marvin Gaye, and
Phyllis Hyman. For Prestige, he led three seminal spiritual jazz-funk outings: 1974's
Bridge to the New Age, 1975's
Summer Solstice, and 1976's People Moving. During the 1980s, he worked extensively with L.A. songwriting and production team
Laurin Rinder and
W. Michael Lewis, as well as jazzmen
Stanley Turrentine and
Henry Butler. In 1985 he released the funky fusion outing Shadow Dancing. After two decades of struggling with health issues,
Lawrence returned with Speak the Word in 2009. Prayer for My Ancestors appeared in 2010, followed by The Seeker in 2014 and
Elementals for HighNote in 2018. In 2021, Light in the Attic reissued Shadow Dancing.
Lawrence released New Sky on his own Trazar Records in 2022; Light in the Attic reissued Shadow Dancing the same year.
Lawrence was born in Los Angeles in 1952. His biggest musical influence early on was his mother, who taught music and led their church choir. At age five, he played violin in the Los Angeles Junior Symphony, then viola. At 13, he heard
John Coltrane's saxophone and there was no turning back.
Lawrence switched to tenor saxophone (and later mastered soprano and alto as well). He spent his teen years immersed in jazz at the home of his best friend, none other than Reggie Golson, son of composer/arranger/saxophonist
Benny Golson.
Lawrence joined the renowned Dorsey High School Jazz Workshop a year later. After his junior year, he toured Europe with
Muddy Waters. During his senior year, he played with
the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band and
War with
Eric Burdon.
After high school,
Lawrence spent time learning from
Horace Tapscott in the pianist's Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra while also playing a club run with
George Cables,
Candy Finch,
Larry Gales, and
Woody Shaw. He also performed with
Ike & Tina Turner's band. At age 19, he auditioned for and won a spot in drummer
Elvin Jones' touring band, where he remained for five years.
Jones recommended the young saxophonist to pianist
McCoy Tyner, his bandmate in the John Coltrane Quartet. Impressed by the balance of technical prowess, spirituality, and emotion in his playing,
Tyner hired him.
Lawrence not only toured with the pianist but played on three now classic albums by him: 1973's
Enlightenment, 1974's
Sama Layuca, and 1975's
Atlantis. Prestige Records,
Tyner's label at the time, offered
Lawrence his own deal. His first leader outing was 1974's
Bridge into the New Age. A five-song set of all originals, it crisscrossed post-bop, spiritual soul-jazz, Latin and Afro Cuban jazz, and funky acoustic modal jazz. Its star-studded revolving lineup included pianist
Joe Bonner,
Shaw on trumpet, vocalist
Jean Carn, trombonist
Julian Priester,
Arthur Blythe on alto, and
Billy Hart and
Leon Ndugu Chancler on drums. That same year,
Miles Davis invited the saxophonist to join his road band.
Lawrence played with the trumpeter at Carnegie Hall and appeared on
Dark Magus.
Lawrence released
Summer Solstice in 1975. Moving across spiritual soul-jazz, Afro-Brazilian music, and Latin jazz, the date included guitarist
Amaury Tristao pianists
Albert Dailey and
Dom Salvador, bassist
Ron Carter, trombonist
Raul De Souza, flutist
Gerald Hayes, and
Hart on drums. That year, he also sat in on
Shaw's The Moontrane and played on
Jones'
New Agenda. The following year,
Lawrence joined the all-star cast on pianist and composer
Gene Harris' jazz-funk classic
In a Special Way and released People Moving, his acclaimed third and final date for Prestige. Funkier than either of its predecessors, it hinted at the musical direction
Lawrence was beginning to travel. Its cast included keyboardist/vocalist
Patrice Rushen, bassist
Paul Jackson, guitarist
Lee Ritenour, drummer
Harvey Mason,
James Mtume on percussion,
George Bohanon on trombone, trumpeter
Oscar Brashear, and saxophonists
Ernie Watts and
Buddy Collette.
In 1977,
Lawrence was touring his own groups but was increasingly in demand as a session player. He was recruited by composer, pianist, and conceptualist Harry Whittaker to participate in the historic jazz-funk sessions for Black Renaissance: Body, Mind and Spirit in 1977; he also played on recordings by
Freddie Hubbard,
Deniece Williams,
De Souza, and
Phyllis Hyman, and played live with
Frank Zappa. In 1978,
Lawrence was part of the studio crew that recorded
Marvin Gaye's
Here, My Dear. The following year, he co-founded the short-lived jazz-disco fusion project
Chameleon with
Gerald Brown, Delbert Taylor, and
Ronald Bruner, Sr.;
Lawrence not only played on their lone, self-titled Elektra date, he co-produced it with
Fred Wesley. The following year,
Lawrence entered a working relationship with new wave pop-cum-disco songwriters, producers, and recording artists
Laurin Rinder and
W. Michael Lewis. He appeared in their outfits Le Pamplemousse and
El Coco.
In 1980,
Lawrence played on the Leslie Drayton Orchestra's Our Music Is Your Music while touring and recording with Le Pamplemousse. He joined saxophonist
Stanley Turrentine's top-flight cast for the jazz-funk stunner
Home Again in 1982. (Other players included bassists
Nathan East and
Abe Laboriel,
Jerry Peters,
Victor Feldman, and
Chuck Jackson.) The following year, he played synthesizers and co-wrote three selections on
Earth, Wind & Fire's charting, gold-certified
Powerlight. In 1985,
Lawrence recorded the funky smooth jazz groover Shadow Dancing for the independent Riza label. His sidemen included drummer
James Gadson,
Meters guitarist
Leo Nocentelli, and percussionist
Eddie "Bongo" Brown. It would be the last album to appear under
Lawrence's name for more than two decades. He finished the decade working with jazz pianist
Henry Butler on the celebrated Fivin' Around, and joining the sessions for Welcome Home by L.A. R&B vocal group
the Waters.
Lawrence spent the next decade-and-a-half away from music, struggling with his health. He returned in 2006 leading the Edward Bayers Quartet for the live Legacy and Music of John Coltrane and led his own quartet for 2009's modal jazz outing Speak the Word. In 2010, he joined the Gathering collective, who independently released Leimert Park: Roots & Branches of Los Angeles Jazz. Later that year, he issued the widely acclaimed Prayer for My Ancestors, which showcased him leading a quartet with drummer
Alphonse Mouzon, pianist
Nate Morgan, and bassist
Henry Franklin. He joined
Franklin's quartet for that year's
O, What a Beautiful Morning! and 2009's
Home Cookin'. That summer,
Lawrence participated in a series of live events at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex in Los Angeles. He performed with pioneering vibraphonist and Ethio-jazz creator
Mulatu Astatke. Their date was issued a year later as Mochilla Presents Timeless: Mulatu Astatke.
The saxophonist was also playing his own club and road gigs. He issued the globally celebrated Mystic Journey in 2010 with a lineup that included pianist
Benito Gonzalez, trumpeter
Eddie Henderson, altoist
Gerald Hayes, bassist
Essiet Essiet and drummer
Rashied Ali in his final recording session. The album is dedicated to his memory.
Lawrence also played on the pianist's Circles in a quartet that included bassist
Christian McBride, drummer
Jeff "Tain" Watts, and tenorist
Ron Blake. That year,
Lawrence also played on Cast the First Stone, the debut album by jazz supergroup
the Cookers and Like Someone in Love by vocalist and pianist
Eden Atwood.
In 2014,
Lawrence released The Seeker, a charting quartet date for Sunnyside with
Gonzalez,
Essiet, and
Watts. He also played on pianist
Franklin Kiermyer's Further with
Gonzalez and bassist Juini Booth. After another year of touring, club, and session work,
Lawrence teamed with Canadian saxophonist
Al McLean and his quartet to record the digital Conduit, comprised exclusively of standards by
Coltrane,
Tyner,
Charlie Parker, and others. In 2016, they released
Frontiers using almost the same lineup.
Lawrence issued
Elementals for HighNote in 2018, a charting, wildly diverse program of post-bop and modal jazz. His sidemen on the date included
Gonzalez, drummer
Marvin "Smitty" Smith, percussionist
Munyungo Jackson, and guitarist
Greg Poree.
After sitting out 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
Lawrence debuted a new quartet streamed live on the World Stage in January 2021 with drummer Tony Austin, pianist Robert Turner, and bassist
Seoku Bunch. Late in the year, Light in the Attic remastered and reissued 1985's exercise in jazz boogie Shadow Dancing. Meanwhile,
Lawrence formed his own Trazar label and recorded 2022's New Sky. The lineup included
John Beasley and
Nduduzo Makhathini on pianos and keys, bassist
Bunch, drummer Austin, percussionist
Jackson, guitarists
James Saez,
Greg Poree, and
Gregory "GMOE" Moore, harpist
Destiny Muhammad, and various singers. ~ Thom Jurek