Arnie Lawrence
Arnie Lawrence ( * July 10, 1938 in Brooklyn, New York City as Arnold Lawrence Finkelstein, † April 22, 2005 in Jerusalem) was an American tenor saxophonist of modern jazz, music teacher and composer.
Life and work
Lawrence initially learned clarinet before switching to the saxophone as a teenager. From the age of twelve played in hotels and clubs in the Catskills and at 17 he had a first appearance at New York's Birdland. In the following years he played with Mat Mathews (1955 /56), Urbie Green, Dick Hyman, Frank Foster, Warren Chiasson / Jimmy Garrison, Doc Severinsen and Duke Pearson. 1966 made his first recordings with Chico Hamilton ( The Dealer ). He belonged to it a few years the Hamilton band; next he was from 1967 to 1972 soloist on the Tonight Show. In 1968 he presented a first album under his own name. In the late 1960s he also worked with Johnny Richards, Joe Newman and Les DeMerle.
In the early 1970s played at Lawrence Clark Terry, 1974 Blood, Sweat & Tears, at Rod Levitt and Chuck Israels National Jazz Ensemble. 1978/79 he went with Liza Minnelli on a world tour; he published further albums and toured the early 1980s with Louie Bellson and Elvin Jones. He also composed a symphony ( Red, White and Blues ), which was performed with an orchestra in Williamsburg ( Virginia); Soloists were Lawrence, Dizzy Gillespie and Julius Hemphill. From the mid- 1960s he also worked with his own bands such as the Children of All Ages and Treasure Iceland.
From the mid- 1970s, Lawrence worked as a music teacher, first as an artist in residence in Kentucky and Kansas. In 1986 he founded the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City; Students of this program were, inter alia, Roy Hargrove, Brad Mehldau, Larry Goldings, John Popper, Peter Bernstein and Jay Rodriguez. In 1997 he moved to Israel, where he founded the International Center for Creative Music, a device which was aimed at Jewish and Arab students. He appeared regularly in Israel with his band Blues Co - Elation, and opened a nightclub called Arnie 's Jazz Underground. He died in 2005 from lung and liver cancer.
The singer Marya Lawrence is his daughter. The saxophonist and flutist Erik Lawrence is his son.
Discography
- You're Gonna Hear from Me ( Project 3, 1968)
- Look Toward a Dream ( Project 3, 1969), with Larry Coryell
- Inside an Hourglass ( Embryo Records, 1970)
- Might Just Turn Out To Be Sages (1976 ), with Children Of All Ages
- Treasure Iceland (1979 )
- Renewal (Palo Alto Records, 1981) with Chico Hamilton, Billy Hart, Mike Richmond