HOW DOES ONE CARRY ON THE TORCH OF A MUSICAL GIANT? FOR AZAR LAWRENCE, IT’S NOT A MATTER OF PLAYING THE MUSIC OF JOHN COLTRANE AS MUCH AS EMBRACING HIS MUSICAL WORLD VISION.
HIS TENOR SOUND ROARS LIKE A LION, AND HIS SOPRANO SAX SLITHERS LIKE A SNAKE ON HIS LATEST ALBUM ELEMENTALS. MANY OF THE SONGS ON THIS IMPRESSIVE ALBUM CAPTURE THE DNA OF VARIOUS PARTS OF COLTRANE’S SOUND FROM HIS IMPULSE! YEARS.
BUT IT’S NOT THE MUSIC ITSELF THAT LAWRENCE IS PASSING ON. MORE IMPORTANTLY, AS HIS ALBUM TITLE SUGGESTS, IT’S MORE OF AN ESSENCE OF LIFE ITSELF WHICH IS SIMPLY REFLECTED IN THE MUSIC.
WE HAD A CHANCE TO HAVE A CHAT WITH MR. LAWRENCE, AND HIS ENTHUSIASM AND PASSION FOR HIS MUSIC IS PALPABLE WITH EVERY WORD.
YOU FIRST GOT ON THE MUSICAL MAP AS A SIDEMAN FOR MCCOY TYNER. HOW DID YOU GET THAT COLTRANE-ESQUE SOUND? WAS IT SOMETHING NATURAL OR WAS IT A GOAL TO STRIVE FOR?
I’ve never taken a John Coltrane album and play along with it. I just try to be the best that I can be, and get my own voice out, making as pure a tone as possible.
When I was with McCoy, I once asked him “How can you play with a guy like me after playing with Coltrane?” He said, “You both feel the same way about music. If I can hand you the baton without slowing down the race, we’ll be good.”
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“(WIth McCoy Tyner) I had committed (the songs) to memory in that two hour session, and there we went, recording the album! I was up to the task.”
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IN RETROSPECT, WHAT ARE YOUR REFLECTIONS OF THOSE ALBUMS, ENLIGHTENMENT, SAMA LAYUCA AND ATLANTIS, THAT YOU RECORDED WITH HIM?
It was a beautiful and peak experience in my life.
Those albums were a result of my playing with Elvin Jones 2 ½ years previously. That was a definite hand up in preparing me to play with McCoy Tyner.
The first album Enlightenment was interesting because it was only my third time performing with McCoy. After joining the group, I played in upstate New York with him, and the next performance was in Montreux.
We played a concert in some big castle in Norway, and at 3 am the next morning with the sun already up, he called me and asked if he wanted to practice with me. So we went into a conference room where he showed me the songs that ended up being the body of Enlightenment. He and I rehearsed that day for about an hour and he then called Joony (Booth) and Alphonse (Mouzon) and we all went through another hour.
*****The next time I saw him was at the (Montreux) sound check! (laughs) There was nothing written! Fortunately I had committed them to memory in that two hour session, and there we went, recording the album! I was up to the task.
What made it a beautiful album was committing the music to memory, leaving a lot of room for interpretation. We were a perfect fit with each other; we considered each other family.
And that wasn’t just a musical family. His kids were young then, and he told me that he didn’t have people over to his house, but had me over. He trusted me.
We did it the same way for Atlantis, the “live” recording. He showed me the songs a couple of days before, and it was only one rehearsal and we then recorded it.
THAT’S WHAT YOU CALL A BAPTISM BY FIRE
(laugsh) That’s what it was. (Not only do) you have the exhilaration of performing in front of an audience, as that Montreux audience was quite vast. It was larger than Madison Square Garden, and had all the musicians on different floors. On my floor right next to me was Dexter Gordon and James Moody.
For this big venue, practicing was really a big thing for me. I was working on long tones, because if you practice on whole tones, it quickens the development of your voice to make your embouchure and deliver strong. This way, you don’t have to play as many notes; you can do more singing.
DID MCCOY TYNER GIVE YOU ANY MUSICAL OR LIFE ADVICE? 844
Quite a few things. As far as musical, he told me to remember to practice slow. That has really helped in my playing, both prior and now. Do the scales, like the chromatic scale, long tones and learn the song slowly before you speed it up.
YOU PLAYED WITH ELVING JONES BEFORE TEAMING UP WITH TYNER? HOW DID THAT RELATIONSHIP BEGIN?
Benny Golson’s son Reggie (may he rest in peace) was my best friend. I was at their house almost every day after school, or even after lunch or jazz workshop (laughs). Reggie played drums and was close with Elvin.
I was staying with Horace Tapscott during my senior year in high school, and Reggie came by and said “Elvin and his wife Keiko are arriving at the airport; let go pick them up.” Reggie was trying to get us together.
That night we went back and I brought my soprano, and Elvin says “You might get a chance to use that thing.”
After a performance at The Lighthouse, he asked me “Hey, are you free tomorrow to come by and rehearse?” Little did I know that Dave Liebman just left him to join Miles Davis, leaving Steve Grossman and Gene Perla in the pianoless quartet.
After the show, I was packing up my horn and Elvin comes over and says, “So, are you with me? I’ve got a plane ticket for you.” I said heck yeah!
He said “Keiko and I are going to adopt you; you’re going to come stay with us.”
But Steve and Gene said, “You don’t want to stay with Elvin, man. He’s going to overshadow you like a parent, and you won’t be able to do anything!
We’ve got a place up in Harlem that we don’t use.”
So I took my stuff there; I didn’t know where in the world I was; no telephone; no KEY. It was ridiculous.
That night I was practicing and went to get a cup of water. When I turned the water on, a hoard of roaches came pouring out! The sink was black with them; it was an invasion!
I didn’t try to kill them; I just got up on a chair with my saxophone. I took of the mouthpiece, and a little roach stuck out his head at me, as if he were say, “yeah, what’s up?” I really arrived in New York in the ‘70s (laughs).
So I called Elvin and he said “I told you to come live with us” and I took a cab to stay with him and Keiko. I was there for 2 ½ years.
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“(Elvin Jones) once told me ‘You are over the technical aspect of music; you’re over the physical. Just play; just make music.’”
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WHAT DID HE TEACH YOU?
So many life lessons; he was such a sweetheart. He once told me “You are over the technical aspect of music; you’re over the physical. Just play; just make music.”
NOT ONLY DID YOU BECOME A LEADING EXPONENT OF MODAL MUSIC, BUT YOU HAD STINTS WITH HARD BOPPERS FREDDIE HUBBARD AND WOODY SHAW. HOW DID THOSE ACQUINTANCES START?
When I was sixteen years old, my neighbor happened to be hearing me practice in my home in Baldwin Hills. He came down and told my father and me “I grew up in the same town as Freddie Hubbard. I’m going to see him play at The Lighthouse tonight and talk to him and see if I can bring you out there.”
So I went and Hubbard let me sit in. That’s where I first met bassist Reggie Workman and we all became friends.
With Woody Shaw, I was rehearsing with the 103rd Street Band after high chool, and joined with the early formation of WAR with Eric Burden. I was on retainer with him.
On Tuesday and Thursday nights from 2 am to 6 am I played with a group that had Dizzy Gillespie’s drummer, Candy Finch, and Larry Gales, who was Monk’s bassist with George Cables on piano, and then Woody Shaw on trumpet. We did that for months.
That’s why when I did my first album, Bridge into the New Age it had Shaw among others.
EACH BAND AND MUSICAL ASSOCIATION CAME ABOUT BY “CHANCE” MEETINGS. DO YOU FEEL THERE’S A DIRECTION IN YOUR LIFE THAT IS BEING GUIDED BY GOD?
Definitely. I try to make it a practice to listen to the voice of my “Intelling Factor,” or my Inner Voice. My goal is to not have to say “I wish I had followed my first voice,” so I really try to follow the God presence that is within me.
YOUR LINER NOTES QUOTE FROM JESUS’ SERMON ON THE MOUNT AND SPEAK OF THE GOD MOST HIGH, SO YOU’VE GROWN UP WITH A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION.
That’s very perceptive. Basically, I’m a Universalist; I don’t discriminate against race, gender, etc. I’ve done a lot of investigation to discover the common factors which we call The Golden Thread. It runs through all of the religions and humanity through time, and you can then see the common denominator, or actually The Common Denominator, the One God.
LETS GET TO YOUR RECENT ALBUM. IT SEEMS THAT EITHER CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY EACH SONG CAPTURES A DIFFERENT ASPECT OF JOHN COLTRANE’S PLAYING DURING HIS LATER YEARS. YOU HAVE A SONG FROM HIS BALLADS ALBUM, A SITAR ON ONE TO GIVE HINTS OF INDIA, AND THEN SOME HORNS REMINISCENT OF ERIC DOLPHY’S AFRICA BRASS
I’ve never had a conscious effort to emulate anyone, only to listen to the Inner Voice in my own personal studies. It’s this that actually touches upon the material that John Coltrane touched upon as well.
I also had that common denominator with (Earth Wind and Fire’s) Maurice White who did research with the Egyptian Inner Knowledge. Both John and McCoy Tyner studied that material.
I would carry along with my two saxophones a briefcase of books , and McCoy told me that Coltrane also carried along with him a satchel of books to study. You can hear it in the music, because out of all of the piano players that John had access to, the way that they molded together because of McCoy’s own development…McCoy was a big part of that sound.
Their music expressed where they were coming from. John would show McCoy something and then integrate it into his sound. The way Coltrane approached life was a pivotal point, along with Elvin’s maturity. McCoy told me that John believed that Elvin was on his same level, but just on drums as far as life experience and musical knowledge.
You can tell that they were all of one mind and grew together into where they went.
IS THIS PART OF THE TITLE OF YOUR ALBUM, THE ELEMENTALS, IMPLYING THAT EACH OF YOU, MAURICE, MCCOY AND JOHN, ETC, HAVE THE SAME “ELEMENTALS” AS FAR AS VISION AND DIRECTION?
The album is a tribute to the elementals, the Nature Spirits that govern the air, water, earth wind and fire. We have the same direction because we were all touching into it.
YOU”VE DONE A LOT OF MATERIAL WITH AN OVERLOOKED JAZZ GIANT, BASSIST HENRY FRANKLIN
Henry had a wonderful soul, and when we first played together, we connected spiritually as well as musically. We were close brothers.
YOU HAVE TO HAVE A LEVEL OF SPIRTUAL CLOSENESS WITH THIS INTENSE MUSIC, OR IT’S GOING TO BE A WIPEOUT AND CAR CRASH
It’s a whole organization, so to speak. Over the past years I’ve been blessed to connect with Tracy Hannah, who is my manager. She’s of a like mind, like one of the musicians.
She brings a love and joy along with her expertise to create the foundation of her approach to the business. The two of us have an undeniable bond to integrate our focus together.
YOU HAVE A SPIRUTUAL SENSITIVITY. WHAT DID YOU FEEL WHEN YOU RECORDED WITH MILES DAVIS?
He really wasn’t my kind of guy. He wanted me to leave and tour with him. I did a few things with him. Of course I was thinking of the opportunity, like “he’s the greatest; John Coltrane went through him; everybody went through him.”
I was in Japan one week later that episode with McCoy, and saw my name on a billboard. I know what exposure can do for your career, but with Miles it wasn’t right vibrationally. I had to move with my Higher Self
WHAT DOES IT PROFIT A MAN TO GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD, BUT FORFEIT YOUR SOUL?
Exactly!
YOU’RE ALSO GOING TO AFRICA SOON. WHAT’S THAT ABOUT
I’ve gone to Dakar, Senegal in the past couple years. This time I’m going to work with a guy in Johannesburg, South Africa, and we’ll collaborate and record an album with musicians there.
I’m also doing a concert series called “Bridges” sponsored by Concord Records who are reissuing my first album, Bridge into the New Age. They’ll then release the Summer Solstice album. The Bridges is a big thing, with 650 seats, and the sponsors like Amazon will be streaming it. Also, I will be at the Angel City Jazz Fest in October.
WHAT KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED?
I’ve been very fortunate over the years to find out that I can and do make a living. I’ve been doing it for 40 years! (laughs) All of my needs are met; Godliness is the bottom line of it. The music itself is motivating. With the technical aspect I can feel my work starting to blossom
AZAR LAWRENCE IS PRESENTLY TOURING, WITH A GIG BEING PART OF THE ANGEL CITY JAZZ FEST COMING UP SOON. CHECK OUT HIS LATEST ALBUM AND BREATH IN THE ELEMENTS OF HIS ELEMENTALS.