Jarrod Lawson: Be The Change, CD

 “The blue-eyed soul boy of jazz”

Singer-songwriter-keyboardist Jarrod Lawson emerged seemingly out of nowhere, at the age of 37, with a self-produced debut album that took the world of soul and jazz by storm.

Within a whirlwind couple of years the former stonemason and piano tuner from Portland, Oregon played sold-out shows at London’s Ronnie Scott’s Club and Jazz Cafe, headlined the London Shepherds Bush Empire, performed at the London Jazz Festival, Love Supreme and North Sea Jazz festivals and powered his way into the Dutch Top 40 album chart.  He has since performed at Billboard Live in Tokyo, in Melbourne, at Indonesia’s Java Jazz festival and at leading jazz venues across the United States.

Describing him as the “blue eyed soul boy of jazz”, the London Evening Standard wrote: “It’s not just Lawson’s wide ranging tenor and ability to swing, scat and groove that has made him the biggest soul-jazz sensation in years.  It’s the way he’s bringing spirituality back to a genre that had lost its depth”.   

Lawson is now back, with his long-awaited second album “Be The Change”, accompanied by a talented band that benefits from the rhythmic presence of Grammy-nominated percussionist Sammy Figueroa, whose playing in a lengthy career has graced dozens of albums from artists as diverse as Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Quincy Jones to Hall & Oates, Chic and Carole King.

Lawson’s trademark layered harmonies and vocal phrasing, his jazz fusion arrangements and his stunning keyboard skills are in evidence throughout the album, notably on title track “Be The Change”,  “Universal Chord” and “How Long”.   On the beautiful, intimate “I’ll Be Your Radio” he is joined by Moonchild’s 
Amber Navran on vocals and flute and her fellow members of the Los Angeles alternative R&B trio who contribute clarinet and flugelhorn, and on the smouldering torch song “Love Isn’t Always Enough” Max Ribner’s trumpet and flugel provide the perfect mood-setting accompaniment.  

Lawson grew up surrounded by music.  His father ran a recording studio in the family’s Redwood City, California home.  After moving to Portland he studied music and was a member of his college chamber choir and jazz ensemble.  His near obsession with the piano blossomed when he was only 13 as he studied the masters from Chopin to Oscar Peterson, Ravel to Errol Garner, as well as Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and, of course, the artists who have influenced him the most - Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder.   Whether he sings and plays jazz, funk or rock   ultimately “everything he touches turns to soul”, as one critic wrote.

Following the release of his debut album he received an Artist of the Year award from the UK’s Jazz FM and was runner up for Album of the Year at tastemaker DJ Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards

“Following the success of Gregory Porter there’s a lot of interest in finding another jazzy soul/soully jazz star and Lawson is the hot contender” - Independent On Sunday

 “Over deep danceable grooves blended with smart jazz-fusion arrangements Lawson works a breezy vocal magic all of his own” - Sunday Express

“With the deafening buzz surrounding this gig Lawson has to show and prove, and he does so and then some, pretty much from the downbeat” - Jazzwise

“His fingers fluttered up and down the keys and his voice up and down the scales like a leaf in the wind. More remarkable still was the laid-back ease with which he did it” - The Scotsman

TRACK LIST

1.   Be The Change
2.   I’ll Be Your Radio (feat. Moonchild)
3.   Battlefield
4.   Love Isn’t Always Enough
5.   Universal Chord
6.   Why Don’t You Call Me Baby Anymore
7.   Evalee
8.   Connected
9.   Embrace What We Are
10. Soul Symphony
11. How Long