Azar Lawrence grew up in L.A. as something of a musical prodigy. By
11 he played drums, violin and piano and he sang as well. A family
friend brought a saxophone to the home right around the time Azar was
ready to start viola and his musical focus was changed. By the time he
graduated high school he had mastered the instrument well enough to
begin a professional career.
At 19 he had a regular
club gig with Woody Shaw and worked with R&B folk like Ike and
Tina Turner and War. By the age of 22 he was playing with the likes of
Elvin Jones, Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner. From 1972 to 1976 he was
certainly one of the fastest rising stars in the jazz world. Then he
kind of vanishes from the Jazz world for 20 + years.
What
happened to this young man who was hailed by some as the next coming of
Coltrane? Well he didn't leave music by any means. In fact, he
participated in wild variety of projects from Earth, Wind and Fire,
Marvin Gaye, Frank Zappa, and a funk band called Chameleon; he made some
serious cash, discovered cocaine, had a down period, and has returned
to jazz. (yeah, I know that is seriously condensed but I'm not his
biographer now am I?)
This stunning album of what I
think of as 'Spiritual Jazz' was done in 1974 and features a remarkable
cast of major league players like Woody Shaw, Jean Carn, Clint Houston,
John Heard, Hadley Caliman, Julian Priester, Ndugu, Mtume, Kenneth
Nash... it sounds for all the world like something from Black Jazz or
Strata East and yet it is a Orrin Keepnews produced Prestige/Fantasy
release. It vanished from print within 5 years or so and saw one cd
reissue for two or three minutes.
I picked up this copy
from a long forgotten blog some three years ago or more, my original
vinyl copy was long gone so I am deeply grateful to that original
uploader. I
really like this album and I'm very happy to pass on the share.
I can't recall ever seeing either of these albums in a lossless rip...somebody want to prove me wrong?
