Lawrence Durrull

Trumpeter Josh Lawrence leads the classic jazz quintet configuration of trumpet, tenor, piano. bass, and drums on Measured Response, his sixth album as a leader on Posi-Tone. He has co-led two with the Fresh Cut Orchestra on Ropeadope and has received three Grammy nominations, most notably with Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band. Last time out we informed you that he was appointed Director of Jazz Studies at Interlochen Center for the Arts, but he has now transitioned to his native Philadelphia as Manager of Jazz Education Programs with Ensemble Arts Philly, the new presenting brand of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The album centers on his journey from northern Michigan to his familiar home turf. In this effort he teams with Posi-Tone stalwarts – tenorist Diego Rivera, pianist Art Hirahara, and drummer Rudy Royston. The bassist is Luques Curtis, with whom Royston has often teamed. With two exceptions, these are all Lawrence compositions, with one from Charlie Haden and another from John Coltrane.

GRAMOPHONE RECORDING OF THE YEAR 1996. Scharwenka was one of the most beloved of musical figures during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His Concerto No 4 in F minor, written in 1908, was greeted at its premiere with astonishing enthusiasm from an audience ‘which may, without exaggeration, be said to have included almost every pianist – virtuoso, teacher and student – in Berlin’. Two years later Scharwenka was to give his first performance of the work at a concert in New York. The conductor was Gustav Mahler. Emil Von Sauer’s compositions have suffered from an even greater neglect, wholly unjustifiable, than Scharwenka’s. The E minor Concerto had already gone through eight printings by 1908 when he performed it in Chicago: “It was no matter for astonishment that when the pianist-composer had brought the work to its conclusion a storm of genuine enthusiasm should seep the house from gallery to floor … Mr Sauer represents a school of piano-playing that has all but vanished. The pianists who are now moulding the taste of the public are, one and all, engaged in the questionable task of reproducing with their instruments effects that are orchestral … but in the meantime we are in danger of forgetting the joys of pure pianism. To such joys Mr Sauer has awakened us.” Two first recordings, played by one of the greatest virtuoso pianists today.

Few (if any?) opera singers have also been Academy Award nominees, let alone for Best Actor. But then again, there is only one Lawrence Tibbett (1896–1960). Described as dashing, Tibbett had a career as a movie actor, radio show personality and host, with sponsors such as Packard, Firestone, and Chesterfield. He was also one of the first “crossover” artists singing Gershwin, Kern, and Porter, and was a staple at the Met. A cogent and articulate advocate for artistic causes (rare in his day), he founded the American Guild of Musical Artists with Jascha Heifetz. But first and foremost, Lawrence Tibbett was an opera singer and one of the greatest baritones of all time.

Azar Lawrence is an American jazz saxophonist. By the time Azar Lawrence released "Bridge Into the New Age" in 1974 - his first recording as a bandleader - he had already built himself an enviable reputation as a saxophone player alongside the likes of McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw. Lawrence's vigorous and emotionally multifaceted playing shines on this album which was a truly forward-looking release in the mid-1970s, presented here as a remastered hi-res release to be enjoyed anew.