I've done a few pieces chronicling Azar Lawrence's "comeback" via gigs here in Los Angeles.
It's good to see him get some visibility via this magazine.

Here are a few excerpts from an upcoming article.


Azar Lawrence - Elightened In The New Age




Although Lawrence is one of the most authentic of the Coltrane-influenced tenor players, he has, more than most, transformed the style into a uniquely personal expression. So unique, and so personal, in fact, that he has performed impressively with everyone from Ike and Tina Turner, Eric Burdon and War, Marvin Gaye, and the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band to Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, Bobby Hutcherson, Clark Terry, Cedar Walton, Frank Zappa, Busta Rhymes and Maurice White. And many more.

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When he was just turning 19, Golson (Reggie, Benny Golson's son) introduced him to Jones (Elvin). "I went with Reggie to pick up Elvin at the airport, "" says Lawrence. "He was playing at the Lighthouse, and when we got there I heard Reggie telling Elvin that I was a great sax player. I had my soprano with me, and at the club Elvin walked past me, pointed at it and said, 'You know what? You might get a chance to use that thing.'"

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Lawrence had always wanted, however, to play with McCoy Tyner. One night, Alphonse Mouzon, who was playing drums with tyner, came in to hear the Jones band at the Village Vanguard. "He went back to McCoy," explains Lawrence,"and told him, 'Hey, man, what we need is down at the Vanguard.' McCoy told Alphonse to ask me to come over to their gig. When I got there, McCoy talked to me for a while. He said, 'Hey, so I hear you like music.' And I said, 'Yeah, I love music.' So he said, 'You like to play?' And I said, 'Yeah, I love to play.' And he said, 'Well, come on and sit in.' I did, and afterward, McCoy came up to me and said, 'Give me your number, buddy.'"

It was the casual introduction to a gig with Tyner that would last more than five years.

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Lawrence's relatively brief encounter with Miles Davis in 1974, which consisted of a few rehearsals and the Carnegie Hall date that produced Dark Magus, called for a somewhat differnet kind of "guy," but it too was a role that he was fully capable of handling. "I came from an R&B kind of background," he says, "the Watts 103rd St. Band, etc. And I was a Jimi Hendrix fan, had the opportunity to hear him perform in Los Angeles. ... So Miles' band was just perfect for me. I was in hog heaven."

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"Then I ran into Maurice White," recalls Lawrence. "We found out we shared some spiritual ideas. He explained some of the stuff he'd seen in Egypt, and I said, 'Well, listen, I have a couple of songs.' But he was only mildly interested. They all thought of me in the John Coltrane context. But I played some things for him and he said, 'Wait a minute. I'm hearing some stuff there.' So I played the next one and he said the same thing. Well, we never did get to talk about Egypt, and some of the songs wound up on Earth, Wind and Fire's Powerlight album."

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Additions for clarity by me.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431
[Edited 2/1/08 16:31pm]