The great musician played with several of the most important names of jazz, such as Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner and Miles Davis, and recorded solo albums for the mythical prestige label.

Published on

By

Azar Lawrence may not be a household name, but he has quite a CV to draw upon. As this exclusive uDiscover Music interview and live footage shot at the Grammy Museum reveals, the highly-respected LA-based jazz saxophonist has played with many of his genre’s biggest names, such as Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner and Miles Davis as well as forging a notable career in the mid-1970s.

Growing up in Los Angeles in the early 1960s, Lawrence grew up in a community where jazz greats like Earl Palmer and Louis Jordan were close neighbors and discovered a path into the wonders of jazz after teaming up with Reggie Golson, son of legendary jazz saxophonist, Benny Golson.

“Reggie lived at the very, very top of the Hollywood hills, beyond Davy Jones of the Monkees, and he had this record collection,” Lawrence enthused, speaking about his early influences in the Udiscover music interview that you can watch at full below.

“That was how I first became familiar with Miles Davis, Hank Mobley, John Coltrane and many more. Hearing [Coltrane’s] A Love Supreme was just a revalatory experience. Just the way the horns sounded…it felt like they were speaking to me personally.”

Arkestra graduate of the PAN -Africana, other people from Horace Tapscott, with whom he played in adolescence, Lawrence recorded 3 albums in so many years for the Jazz Printing of Bob Weinstock. On an excursion in Europe with the pianist McCoy Tyner, in 1974, which presented the possibility of registering as leader through the manufacturer Orrin Keepnews. The owner of the Milestone label, Keepnews, in Montrainux, Switzerland, to capture the Tyner quartet in the remarkable Jazz Festival of Lakeside Town.

“I did the illustration album with McCoy there and that was when Orrin Keepnews listened to me for the first time,” he told Udiscanopy Music. “Within the canopy of the album there is a photo of McCoy on the lake and was taken in a yacht cruise organized by the record corporate. They invited me to pass and on that trip, Orrin Keepnews asked me if I would be interested in signing with prestige.

Azar Lawrence’s debut solo album was 1974’s Bridge Into The New Age, which flew under the radar at the time, but has since been hailed as a classic example of post-John Coltrane spiritual jazz and has been cited as a forerunner of what contemporary jazz sensation Kamasi Washington is attempting right now.

Bridge to the New Age was reissued on vinyl via Craft Recordings in 2017 and the label also recently unveiled Lawrence’s 1975 bare-bones edition Summer Solstice, 180-G’s vinyl remedy, with its new edition a mastery analogue of the original bands. This non-secular loose jazz album remains one of the highlights of Azar Lawrence’s career and he is one of the few artists from the mythical era of prestige recordings to turn in and out of new music.

“My roots in terms of the things I wrote in the 1970s, like Bridge to the New Age and Summer Solstice, all the rhythms essentially came from Africa,” he shows in this interview. “So, what funk and everything we combine in combination is the experience of Azar Lawrence!”

Listen to the Best of Azar Lawrence on Apple Music and Spotify.