Doug Lawrence (jazz musician) explained

Doug Lawrence
Birth Date:11 October 1956
Birth Place:Lake Charles, Louisiana, U.S.
Genre:Jazz
Occupation:Musician
Instrument:Tenor saxophone
Associated Acts:The Jazz Knights, Count Basie Orchestra
Website:
Embed:yes
Embed Title:Military service
Serviceyears:1978–1986

Doug Lawrence (born October 11, 1956) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist from Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Early life

Lawrence, the youngest of six children, was born into a musical family in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[1] His father and two of his older three brothers were professional musicians who worked and recorded with Jack Teagarden, Elvis Presley, Ike and Tina Turner, Edgar Winter, The Righteous Brothers, Louis Bellson and others, and both of his sisters played musical instruments.[2] His mother was a dancer and played piano. Lawrence graduated high school from Highland High School (Albuquerque, New Mexico) and studied music at North Texas State University, the University of New Mexico and was a member of the Jazz Knights, a jazz ensemble of the West Point Band.[3] [4]

Career

Lawrence spent over 25 years in New York City, collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Roy Eldridge, Nancy Wilson (jazz singer), Joe Williams (jazz singer), Teri Thornton, Benny Goodman and others.[5] He has also recorded with many prominent jazz musicians such as Buck Clayton, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Wild Bill Davis, Hank Jones, Mel Lewis, Frank Wess, Grover Mitchell, Loren Schoenberg, Butch Miles and Jimmy Cobb as well as recording six albums as a leader - "Soul Carnival",[6] "High Heel Sneakers",[7] "Big Band Swing"[8] "Street Wise"[9] and "Doug Lawrence and Friends".[10] Lawrence served in the West Point Band's Jazz Knights in the early 1980s as the lead tenor saxophonist.

Lawrence has been a featured performer at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Village Vanguard, the Walt Disney Concert Hall and at international concert halls and jazz festivals including the Sydney Opera House, the Moscow International House of Music, the Blue Note Tokyo, Telluride Jazz Celebration and the North Sea Jazz Festival. Since 1996 Lawrence has been, and is currently, the featured tenor saxophone soloist with the Count Basie Orchestra. In 2020 Lawrence began working with the iconic organist Joey DeFrancesco in DeFrancesco's "Tenor Madness" band. After Mr DeFrancesco's untimely death on August 25, 2022, the band briefly continued on with Dan Trudell taking Mr DeFrancesco's place on organ. This band featured longtime Harry Connick Jr. tenor saxophonist Jerry Weldon and Lawrence in a quartet or quintet setting. [11] Lawrence also works regularly with pianist George Cables among others. [12] Lawrence leads his own Trio, Quartet, Quintet or Sextet as well as a latin jazz band called Doug Lawrence y Su Nuevo Mexicanos.[13] Lawrence frequently appears as guest clinician and artist-in-residence at universities and jazz camps around the world.[14]

Personal life

Lawrence lives in New Mexico, USA.[15]

Discography

As leader

As sideman

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Doug Lawrence gives back to youth - Albuquerque Journal . 2022-07-17 . www.abqjournal.com.
  2. Feather, L; Gitler, I "The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz", New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, p.403
  3. Book: Command, United States Army Recruiting . U.S. Army Recruiting and Reenlisting Journal . 1978 . U.S. Army Recruiting Command . en.
  4. Web site: McGill . Nigel . 2015-03-19 . Doug Lawrence Interview . 2022-07-17 . McGill Music Sax School Online . en-US.
  5. Web site: Doug Lawrence: Biography . Scott. Yanow . Allmusic. July 14, 2011.
  6. Web site: Doug Lawrence: Soul Carnival. Ken. Frankling . JazzTimes. June 10, 2013.
  7. Web site: Doug Lawrence . Tom. Terrell . JazzTimes. |accessdate= 10 June 2013
  8. Web site: Doug Lawrence and His Orchestra: Big Band Swing . Jack. Bowers . 25 July 2006 . All About Jazz. 10 June 2013.
  9. Web site: Doug Lawrence; Street Wise . C.Michael. Bailey . 13 February 2003 . All About Jazz. 10 June 2013.
  10. Web site: Doug Lawrence;Doug Lawrence and Friends. Jack. Bowers . All About Jazz.
  11. Web site: Boss Tenors Jerry Weldon and Doug Lawrence. Musical Instrument Museum. 4 April 2023.
  12. Web site: Dexter Gordon Legacy Quartet with Doug Lawrence, George Cables, Louis Hayes, John Webber. Outpost Performance Space. 27 April 2023.
  13. Web site: Match Made In Jazz Heaven . David. Steinberg . Albuquerque Journal. 17 June 2013.
  14. Web site: Festival internationale Isola Jazz . Franchesco . Gambetta . Genova Oggi Notizie . July 1, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160817184908/http://genova.ogginotizie.it/255962-festival-internazionale-isola-jazz-dedicato-a-bobby-durham/#.UdHs3c3_CJM . August 17, 2016 . dead .
  15. Web site: Doug Lawrence: Local Jazz Hero. Mike. Page-English . . 10 June 2013.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Doug Lawrence (jazz musician)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.