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Azar Lawrence

Azar Lawrence led a very musical childhood and began playing drums at the age of five and moved onto violin and piano under the direction of his mother Ima Lawrence. Ima, a gifted musician and teacher from whom Azar received his acute flair for all things music has shaped many successful musicians.

Azar began playing with the USC JR Orchestra at the age of five. He played violin until the age of 8. He performed vocals accompanied by his mother during elementary school where she taught sixth grade and music

At age eleven he began hearing a different musical voice. He was an accomplished pianist, violinist and vocalist in his own right at the time.

He thought it was time to learn viola. But something happened. Lonnie a long time friend of Mr. Lawrence, and of the family, who often brought his flute when he visited, came by for a swim, and brought his alto sax. Azar was not poolside but he had to see who was playing that cool sound. His father his biggest supporter and fan who had bought all of Azar’s instruments purchased him an alto sax, and Azar began taking instruction from Mr. Schumaker once a week. In high school Azar played with the Dorsey High Jazz Band, and played a jazz workshop with Herbert Baker, “one of the greatest pianist that ever lived and I feel blessed to have been in his presence.”

Azar played everyday with Herbert Baker until a tragic car accident took his teacher and mentor’s life, Azar’s senior year in high school. “That event made me reach deeper and I knew I had to carry on what I had learned.”

Drummer, Reggie Golson, introduced Azar to “the music”, and that’s when he began to get into the creation. Nightly he went to Reggie’s house. Reggie had a room full of records, and he would play them all, over time. Coltrane, Miles, Monk, Shorter. “Reggie prepared me. “

After high school at the age of 19, Azar played with Candy Finch, Larry Gales, and Woody Shaw at a regular gig at a club on 54th St. in Los Angeles.

Soon he would perform with Ike & Tina Turner, Watts 103rd St. band, and War. He then joined Elvin Jones for two years and after leaving Elvin, he joined McCoy Tyner’s group for five years and then back to Elvin for a year, and in the meantime recorded with Roberta Flack.

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SoCal Jazz

Eric Reed Quartet, Pan African People's Arkestra and Pharoah Sanders / Joey DeFrancesco Tribute Band

Read "Eric Reed Quartet, Pan African People's Arkestra and Pharoah Sanders / Joey DeFrancesco Tribute Band" reviewed by Chuck Koton


Eric Reed Quartet Sam FirstLos Angeles, CA June 9, 2023 This spring's weather was unseasonably cool, but the jazz scene has been hot in California! In June, master pianist Eric Reed brought his quartet, including tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore, bassist Mike Gurrola and drummer Reggie Quinerly to Sam First, a cozy jazz club just east of Los Angeles International Airport.  The band opened with a composition of Moore's titled “623 C Street," which, according to Mr Reed, ...

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Album Review

Bill Ortiz: Points of View

Read "Points of View" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Long associated with Carlos Santana, with whom he had a 16-year stint, trumpeter Bill Ortiz steps into the spotlight here with an auspicious and highly entertaining session. Ten selections showcase Ortiz who is supported by some of the Bay area's best. The order of the day is energy, excitement, and an overall superb show. “Sunburst," an Eddie Henderson tune, launches things with a pulsing piano, driving bass, textured rhythms and Ortiz wailing, first using a Harmon mute ...

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Live Review

The Azar Lawrence Experience at Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society

Read "The Azar Lawrence Experience at Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society" reviewed by Roy Strassman


The Azar Lawrence Experience Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society Half Moon Bay, CA July 31, 2022 Azar Lawrence's most recent incarnation of The Azar Lawrence Experience brought its energetic presence to grace Half Moon Bay's Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society on July's final afternoon. The “Experience" featured a unique front line consisting of two horns, a guitar, and a vocalist. Somehow, the group's very presence evoked a feeling of freshness and inspiration. The ...

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Profile

Azar Lawrence Has Paid His Dues...Two times

Read "Azar Lawrence Has Paid His Dues...Two times" reviewed by Chuck Koton


Tenor and soprano saxophonist Azar Lawrence has been one of the most dynamic and spiritually-charged reed players of the post-John Coltrane generation. Lawrence forged his sound in the fires of the Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner bands in the 1970s and, for nearly five decades, he has performed and recorded with the best musicians in the world. Today, Lawrence is at the peak of his horn playing, blowing with as much beauty, power and intensity as anyone on the music ...

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The Vinyl Post

Summer Solstice

Read "Summer Solstice" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


Founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock, the Prestige label was home to some of the best hard bop, swing, and blues music of the '50s and '60s. The diversity of the catalog through subsidiary labels such as Swingville and Bluesville was nothing short of extraordinary. Be it spoken word albums, Southern blues, or the folk strains from India, Japan, or Ireland-there was something for everyone through this ambitious program. By 1971 when the label was sold to Fantasy ...

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Album Review

Azar Lawrence: Elementals

Read "Elementals" reviewed by Chris May


Azar Lawrence sounds more like John Coltrane than John Coltrane ever did. Well, almost. Mid-period Coltrane that is, post Atlantic Records and the sheets of sound, when Coltrane starting to record for Impulse with producer Bob Thiele. The closeness of the resemblance is longstanding and uncanny, but it has not been a cynical pose designed to maximise Lawrence's commercial appeal. He was 15 years old when Coltrane passed away in 1967 and by that time the older saxophonist had already ...

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Live Review

Shock and Awe: Azar Lawrence Drops "The Seeker" On Dizzy's

Read "Shock and Awe: Azar Lawrence Drops "The Seeker" On Dizzy's" reviewed by Chuck Koton


Azar Lawrence Quintet Dizzy's Club Coca Cola New York, NY June 26-29, 2014 There ain't no denyin' that jazz is best heard “live." Ideally, the band is playing in a club equipped with quality sound and lighting systems, staffed by experienced people who are respectful of the music (especially bartenders who try to avoid running the drink mixers during bass and piano solos) and managed by someone who not only sees to it that ...

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Recording

Saxophone Giants Azar Lawrence & Al McLean Kick Off "Conduit"

Saxophone Giants Azar Lawrence & Al McLean Kick Off "Conduit"

Source: Randy Cole

Cinematographer Randy Cole and saxophonist Al McLean deliver Conduit, an iconic Jazz recording, captured in a former church in jny: Montreal. Cole and McLean invited American saxophonist Azar Lawrence, to the session (McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis), and the resulting tracks are mesmerizing. Digitally released on major music download sites (iTunes, Amazon, etc.), Conduit will be officially launched on March 7th in Montreal at Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill by Azar Lawrence and Al McLean. Together, Lawrence and McLean ...

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Music Industry

Montreal Jazz Community Gives Us "Conduit"

Montreal Jazz Community Gives Us "Conduit"

Source: Randy Cole

Montreal's storied Jazz community gives us Conduit, a risky live recording set in a former church. American sax legend Azar Lawrence (McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis) teams up with Canadian tenor-man Al McLean. The pair is recorded in one take, within a strikingly beautiful museum - La Musée des Maîtres et Artisans du Québec. The master craftsmen fit well in the reclaimed church, surrounded by exquisite artifacts. The chemistry that ensues is magic. Conduit sounds downright iconic, and remains ...

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Interview

Azar Lawrence Interview

Azar Lawrence Interview

Source: underyourskin


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Performance / Tour

Azar Lawrence, Classical to Jazz - Jazz to Classical

Azar Lawrence, Classical to Jazz - Jazz to Classical

Source: Linda G.

In the early 20th Century a young girl named Ima Jeane Smith often went to the movies— Silent Pictures— where the only sound was a live pianist, vamping dramatically in sync to the happenings on the screen. Upon returning home from the pictures, Ima Jeane would sit down to her piano and play the “sound track" by memory.  Her parents, Casey and Beulah recognized their daughter's gift and they provided her with formal lessons.  Ima excelled in Classical music.  She ...

130

Recording

Journeyed Tenor Saxophonist Azar Lawrence Set to Release "Mystic Journey," May 4 on Furthermore Recordings

Journeyed Tenor Saxophonist Azar Lawrence Set to Release "Mystic Journey," May 4 on Furthermore Recordings

Source: DL Media

JOURNEYED TENOR SAXOPHONIST AZAR LAWRENCESET TO RELEASE MYSTIC JOURNEY,MAY 4 ON FURTHERMORE RECORDINGS

ALBUM FEATURES EDDIE HENDERSON, GERALD HAYES, BENITO GONZALEZ, ESSIET ESSIET AND THE LATE RASHIED ALI LAWRENCE'S SEXTET TO PERFORM IN TRIBUTE TO ALI ON MAY 7 AT THE TRIBECA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER The re-emergence of saxophonist Azar Lawrence has been one of the most exciting things and perhaps one of the best-kept secrets of the past five years on the Los Angeles jazz scene. Those ...

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Performance / Tour

Azar Lawrence New York Dates: Smoke, Kumble Theatre and Tribeca Performing Arts Center

Azar Lawrence New York Dates: Smoke, Kumble Theatre and Tribeca Performing Arts Center

Source: Zarmedia

Playing to audiences small and large over the past three years and back recording regularly, master of the saxophone, Azar Lawrence is establishing himself again in Jazz land. Azar had been advised by longtime friends and mentors to return to New York, where Elvin Jones in 1971 brought him to join his group when Azar was 19. Friends who he played with as a teen and young adult, like McCoy Tyner, (whose band Azar was a member during the 'Enlightenment" ...

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Performance / Tour

Music in the Clouds / Azar Lawrence – Blue Skies Smiling at Me - Swinging in the Big Blue Sky

Music in the Clouds / Azar Lawrence – Blue Skies Smiling at Me - Swinging in the Big Blue Sky

Source: Zarmedia

When Irving Berlin composed Blue Skies one has to wonder if Montana was on his mind. Berlin wrote Blue Skies in 1926, it was featured in the first feature-length talkie, The Jazz Singer and became a hit. Montana is known as Big Sky Country because of it's beautiful mountains and healthy terrain, yet topography is not Montana's only attraction. With Montana's rich music and arts scene it can also be called Big Jazz Country. On the heels of the International ...

209

Festival

Harmony Festival Celebration in Santa Rosa, California

Harmony Festival Celebration in Santa Rosa, California

Source: All About Jazz

The Harmony Festival is celebrating its 31st anniversary June 12th, 13th and 14th at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, California.

The event was born out of a desire by several Sonoma State students to combine music with an exposition of that eras cutting edge lifestyles. According to founder Debra Giusti, the festival was birthed from the passionate core values of the 60s, like global awareness and personal spiritual awakening.

California has long been noted for the willingness of ...

229

Performance / Tour

Azar Lawrence - Making a Musical Statement! Tour Announced

Azar Lawrence - Making a Musical Statement! Tour Announced

Source: Zarmedia

There’s a reason jazz legends like McCoy Tyner, Benny Golson and Pharoah Sanders have been asking Azar to sit in with their groups lately. Sure, they are close friends and they’ve played together any number of times. They’ve all watched his reemergence onto the jazz scene in the past few years. But they want Azar to join them on stage because he’s at the top of his game, playing with the kind of heart and spirit that comes only from ...

"Jazz needs to retrieve as many Azar Lawrences as possible, mature, tested musicians who have, for whatever reason, receded into the woodwork for way too long. Prayer for My Ancestors is proof of that. Bill Shoemaker, Point of Departure, June 2009

"...he’s still the same physical, gritty, pentatonically inclined tenor and soprano saxophonist. Lawrence made his name with the music he played in the ’70s.......... He should get it back with the music he’s playing today.", Chris Kelsey, JazzTimes, May 2009

"Today, Azar Lawrence burns like a bright, hot flame at the altar of his muse. Given the ever-present fire danger in the Southland, a fire truck should remain on call when Lawrence blows. " ........ "it is a medicinal injection of peace and joy to hear Azar Lawrence burning it up again." Chuck Koton, AllAboutJazz, January 2009

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

An Evening With Kevin...

K-Tone Enterprises
2023

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Points of View

Left Angle Productions
2023

buy

Elementals

HighNote Records
2018

buy

The Seeker

Sunnyside Records
2014

buy

Mystic Journey

Furthermore Recordings
2011

buy

Azar Lawrence: Mystic...

Furthermore Recordings
2010

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