Azar Lawrence Sextet ~ A Night With Jazz Titans
Back by popular demand!!
This fusion of heavyweight musicians “A Night With Jazz Titans”, came together April 25, 2015 for a performance at Long Beach, Ca.’s Seabird Jazz Lounge and the evening lived up to it’s promise to be exactly as the name implied, a superior night of Straight Ahead Progressive Jazz with Azar Lawrence, one of the most powerful and distinctive voices of the post-Coltrane tenor saxophonists, heading a stellar group of jazz artists.
“To hear Mr. Lawrence upshift through his improvisations, honoring a song’s rhythm and harmony and then breaking free of it, is one of jazz’s current thrills, and he understands this music as well as anyone.” Ben Ratliff, New York Times, December 6, 2014
Azar Lawrence Sextet with Special Guests, prolific hard bop trumpeter, Oscar Brashear, veteran trombone master, Motown’s “George Bohanon, heavyweight drummer Roy McCurdy; Featuring, Theo Saunders, who has been described as “provocative and mind bending” on piano, and Jeff Littleton one of the most versatile and in demand bassists on the West Coast.
Sat., May 30 2015 @ Seabird Jazz Lounge 730 East Broadway Long Beach, CA. - Cover $15, Doors open 7:30p, Show Time 9p - 12:30a - Free parking Roscoe's House of Chicken 'N Waffles?
A tenor saxophonist squarely in the post-Coltrane continuum, still best recognized for his prolific output in the 1970s, Azar Lawrence blowing stronger than ever and is still on the circuit. Since his career in Jazz began circa 1970's; at age nineteen, Sax legend Azar Lawrence has had a free-thinking approach to music.
One of the most powerful and distinctive of all post-Coltrane tenorists, Lawrence was born 1952 in Los Angeles and by the age of 21 had worked with Ike & Tina Turner, War, and Charles Wright's Watts 103rd Street Band ("Express Yourself").
He joined drummer Elvin Jones for two years, and for the next eight years moved between Jones' group and that of McCoy Tyner. Azar then briefly joined the Miles Davis band, appearing on the live album Dark Magus (1974) and he recorded with Roberta Flack and Marvin Gaye (appearing on Gaye's Here My Dear). He wrote for Stanley Turrentine, Woody Shaw and Earth, Wind & Fire. As a leader Azar has seven recordings and currently he is producing an upcoming CD; “Into The Night”.
Ben Ratliff of the New York Times, recently had this to say about Azar,
'To hear Mr. Lawrence upshift through his improvisations, honoring a song's rhythm and harmony and then breaking free of it, is one of jazz's current thrills, and he understands this music as well as anyone.' Ben Ratliff, New York Times, December 6, 2014 - Ben Ratliff, New York Times, June 2014
Born in Chicago Oscar Brashear has had an illustrious career as an jazz trumpeter and session musician. He was a member of Count Basie's Band and freelanced in Chicago with Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon and James Moody.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1971, he worked with Gerald Wilson, Harold Land, Oliver Nelson, Shelly Manne, Quincy Jones (with whom he toured in Japan), Horace Silver and Duke Pearson. Brashear has recorded with Teddy Edwards, Jimmy Smith, Sonny Rollins, Benny Golson, Bobby Hutcherson, B. B. King, Bobby Bland, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Farrell, The Crusaders, McCoy Tyner, Gene Harris, Randy Newman, Frank Sinatra, Earth, Wind & Fire, Carole King, Benny Carter, Billy Higgins and Ry Cooder and many more.
A native of Detroit Michigan, Bohanon began playing trombone at the age of eight. He attended Northwestern High School, Wayne State University, and the Detroit Institute of Musical Arts, where he decided to pursue a career as a musician. Some of his greatest influences were J. J. Johnson, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane.
Motown Records hired Bohanon as their first trombonist, a position he held for some seven years, accompanying artists such as Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and many more. In 1968 Bohanon moved to Los Angeles and became very active in the jazz and recording studio scenes. In addition to his position with the UCLA Jazz Studies Program, he is also a music contractor, a signatory to the American Federation of Musicians, a music publisher, writer, arranger, producer, clinician, and performer. The National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded George Bohanon the "Most Valuable Player" award in 1980.
Roy McCurdy will probably always be best-known for his important contributions to Cannonball Adderley's Quintet (1965-1975), but he has been a tasteful and stimulating participant in many other sessions through the years. In 1960 he joined the Art Farmer Benny Golson Jazztet and remained for two years. Early on, he worked with Chuck and Gap Mangione in the Jazz Brothers (1960-1961). McCurdy also gained recognition with Sonny Rollins before joining Adderley. After Adderley''s death, McCurdy moved to the Los Angeles area, where he has played and recorded with the top local musicians ever since.
McCurdy counts among his influences Louie Bellson, Shelly Manne, Sam Woodyard, Buddy Rich, 'Papa' Jo Jones, Philly Joe Jones and the bands of Duke Ellington, Jimmy Lunceford and Lionel Hampton. He' has performed on between 150 and 200 recordings. The list of greats that McCurdy has played with includes Count Basie, Wes Montgomery, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Carmen McRae, Joe Williams, Herbie Hancock, Milt Jackson, Oscar Peterson and Bud Powell. Roy has also played with Art Pepper, John Heard, Ron McCurdy, Jackie Ryan, Joe Zawinal, Blood, Sweat and Tears, etc.
A native New Yorker, Theo Saunders has lived in California since 1985, but his musical career remains international in scope. Saunders' musical odyssey has taken him to four continents and more than twenty countries. Growing up in NYC, he played with Pharoah Sanders in the 1960s, and in 1971 (at age 24), at the Village Vanguard with the likes of Jimmy Garrison and Jack DeJohnette in a group led by guitarist Sonny Greenwich. Appearing on more than 40 recordings as a sideman, he has accompanied everyone from Sonny Fortune and Charles Lloyd to Freddie Hubbard and Ray Mantilla, and has six recordings as a leader.
Southern California jazz scene veteran—Jeff Littleton, has appeared or recorded countless instrumentalist and vocalist artists, including Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Stanley Turrentine, Billy Higgins, Horace Tapscott, Charles McPherson, Pharoah Sanders, Billy Eckstine and Joe Williams, and he also worked on the Nancy Wilson television show Red, Hot & Cool. One of the most versatile and in demand bassists on the West Coast, Jeff Littleton has performed with a virtual who's who of top jazz artist including Freddie Hubbard, Hank Crawford, Harold Land, Bobby Hutchinson, Charles Tolliver, Slide Hampton, James Moody, Tom Harrell and Louis Hayes among others.
Flyer - http://azarlawrence.com/sb_5.30_web1.jpg
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kLfaDXtDe8
Video - https://www.youtube.com/user/ZarMedia
Press - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/28/arts/music/azar-lawrence-quintet-focuses-on-the-seeker.html?_r=0
Hi-Res Photo - http://azarlawrence.com/Zar2fb.jpg
HYPERLINK: Websites
www.azarlawrence.com
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Brashear
www.georgebohanon.com
www.music.usc.edu/roy-mccurdy//
www.theosaunders.com?www.seabirdjazzloungelbc.com
https://www.facebook.com/events/441492659344179/
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