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Hubert Laws

Hubert Laws is an NEA Jazz Master

Internationally renowned flutist Hubert Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop, and rhythm-and-blues genres; moving effortlessly from one repertory to another. He has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, with the orchestras of Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland, Amsterdam, Japan, Detroit and with the Stanford String Quartet. He has given annual performances at Carnegie Hall, and has performed sold out performances in the Hollywood Bowl with fellow flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and was a member of the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras. In addition, he has appeared at the Montreux, Playboy, and Kool Jazz festivals; he performed with the Modern Jazz Quartet at the Hollywood Bowl in 1982 and with the Detroit Symphony in 1994. His recordings have won three Grammy nominations.

Mr. Laws has been involved in unique projects such as collaborations with Quincy Jones, Bob James, and Claude Bolling for Neil Simon's comedy California Suite, a collaboration with Earl Klugh and Pat Williams on the music for How to Beat the High Cost of Living: and film scores for The Wiz, Color Purple, A Hero Ain't Nothing but a Sandwich, and Spot Marks the X.

There are 20 albums in Mr. Laws' discography for such record companies as: Atlantic, CBS, CTI, including: "My Time Will Come," and "Storm Then The Calm" for the Music Masters record label.

Session work also remains a staple of Hubert Laws' schedule, and includes collaborations and recordings with such artists as Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Freddie Hubbard, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Lena Horne, Sergio Mendes, Bob James, Carly Simon, Clark Terry, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.

In addition, Mr. Laws maintains his own publishing companies, Hulaws Music and Golden Flute Music, and he founded Spirit Productions in 1976 to produce his own albums and those of promising new artists. He was selected the No. 1 flutist in Down Beat readers' polls ten years in a row and was the critic's choice seven consecutive years.

Born in Houston, Mr. Laws' musical education came from various sources. He grew up directly across from a honky- tonk called Miss Mary's Place, his grandfather played the harmonica, and his mother played gospel music on the piano. His classical training got under way in high school. He later enrolled in the music department at Texas Southern University. During this period, he arranged to study privately with Clement Barone who Mr. Laws considers had a profound effect on his development. From there he traveled to Los Angeles with the Jazz Crusaders where he won a scholarship to the Juilliard School of music in New York City. Mr. Laws completed his studies and obtained his degree at the Juilliard School of music in New York City under tutelage of the renowned flutist Julius Baker.

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Album Review

Tierney Sutton: Paris Sessions 2

Read "Paris Sessions 2" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Back at the tail end of 2012, Tierney Sutton found herself in a studio in Epinay Sur Orge, France, working comfortably alongside guitarist Serge Merlaud and bassist Kevin Axt (on acoustic bass guitar). The music they captured, released two years later as the Paris Sessions (BFM, 2014), instantly stood out as the most intimate jewel in the celebrated vocalist's sparkling discography. So it's with joy and a touch of surprise that now, almost a decade after that studio stay defined ...

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Album Review

Tierney Sutton: Paris Sessions 2

Read "Paris Sessions 2" reviewed by Jim Worsley


Time just scats on by when one is caught up in the wave of creativity that defines Tierney Sutton. How could it be that this enchanted vocalist is now presenting her fifteenth album? She left indelible footprints on her debut record, Introducing Tierney Sutton (A Records, 1997), breezing through as the leader of her caravan of wonder and possibilities. Sutton certainly has grown, as any artist would over time, but it was clear from the beginning that she knew who ...

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Album Review

MONK'estra: MONK'estra Plays John Beasley

Read "MONK'estra Plays John Beasley" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The MONK'estra is actually a number of groups of various shapes and sizes, from duo to big band, assembled under the guiding hand of composer, arranger & pianist John Beasley to—wait for it!—"play John Beasley," an artist whose admiration for Thelonious Sphere Monk is clear throughout this buoyant and resourceful album, as it was on Volumes 1 and 2 of the series, in which the MONK'estra “played Monk." Beasley wrote eight of the album's fourteen genial numbers ...

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Album Review

John Beasley: MONK'estra Plays John Beasley

Read "MONK'estra Plays John Beasley" reviewed by Jim Worsley


In 2016 John Beasley gifted us with John Beasley Presents Monk'estra Volume 1 (Mack Avenue). The buzz of that superb record led to John Beasley Presents Monk'estra Volume 2 (Mack Avenue, 2017). Both records were Grammy nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. They were both more than Grammy worthy, but alas the competition is fierce. Beasley has been more than a Thelonious Monk fan throughout his life, including his now over forty years in the music industry. ...

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Album Review

Rodrigo Lima: Saga

Read "Saga" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


“I fell in love with the jazz guitar--all kinds of jazz guitarists, from Jim Hall to Pat Metheny to Luis Bonfá, by listening to their records," explains Brazilian composer, arranger, bandleader and guitarist Rodrigo Lima. Saga luxuriously extends this jazz guitar love affair across the American and Brazilian continents--it was recorded in New York, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba--and across the two CDs of Lima's utterly magnificent recorded debut. Producer Arnaldo DeSouteiro elegantly ...

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Extended Analysis

Hubert Laws: In The Beginning

Read "Hubert Laws: In The Beginning" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Hubert LawsIn The BeginningCTI Masterworks2011 (1974) The release of a double album during the LP-era could be a double-edged sword. This format provided a platform for artists to elaborate on their ideas and serve a hefty portion of music to their fans and potential followers, but a single record forced musicians to self-edit a bit more, making them more likely to come out at the other end with a concise artistic ...

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Interview

Hubert Laws: Flute Virtuoso and NEA Jazz Master

Read "Hubert Laws: Flute Virtuoso and NEA Jazz Master" reviewed by Greg Thomas


After James Moody and Frank Wess established the flute as a solo jazz instrument in the 1950s, and Herbie Mann popularized it in the 1960s, the musician that has become most identified with virtuosic flute performance in jazz is Hubert Laws, who became a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters Fellowship in the class of 2011, the penultimate group of honorees before the program closes after the 2012 ceremony. I've been enamored ...

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Recording

Revisiting a crossover classic

Revisiting a crossover classic

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

Forty years ago, pianist Claude Bolling shook up the jazz and classical music worlds a bit with his Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio recording with flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal. It was one of the first true crossover recordings between the two musical styles. The public loved it—since it spent 530 weeks (more than 10 years) on Billboard’s classical charts after rapidly topping out at #1.   Fast forward from 1975 to 2015. With Bolling’s blessing – and an admonition ...

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Event

Los Angeles Jazz Society 30th Anniversary Jazz Tribute Awards Oct. 27

Los Angeles Jazz Society 30th Anniversary Jazz Tribute Awards Oct. 27

Source: Mary Barrow

Van Nuys, CA: It will be a family affair when the Los Angeles Jazz Society pays tribute to Latin jazz artists Sheila E., her father, Pete, and brothers Juan and Peter Michael Escovedo at the Society's 30th Anniversary Jazz Tribute Awards Dinner and Concert at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City on Sunday, Oct. 27. The dynamic musical family has been selected as the Society's 2013 Jazz Honoree. Famed jazz and classical music flutist and saxophonist Hubert Laws will be presented ...

Recording

JumpinJazz Kids - A Swinging Jungle Tale; Set For Release 9/25, Featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater, Al Jarreau And Hubert Laws

JumpinJazz Kids - A Swinging Jungle Tale; Set For Release 9/25, Featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater, Al Jarreau And Hubert Laws

Source: Muse Media

“JumpinJazz Kids is a great model for what needs to be presented to young people. The age group that it targets is a great addition to music, and it’s wonderful for any organization or school. The manner in which it’s presented strikes a nerve – everyone should take a look at it and listen to it!” — Dr. Billy Taylor Los Angeles, CA. “JumpinJazz Kids – A Swinging Jungle Tale” celebrates the rich history of Jazz and Popular music by ...

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Interview

NEA Jazz Master Hubert Laws Interviewed at All About Jazz

NEA Jazz Master Hubert Laws Interviewed at All About Jazz

Source: John Kelman

After James Moody and Frank Wess established the flute as a solo jazz instrument in the 1950s, and Herbie Mann popularized it in the 1960s, the musician that has become most identified with virtuosic flute performance in jazz is Hubert Laws, who became a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters Fellowship in the class of 2011, the penultimate group of honorees before the program closes after the 2012 ceremony. Greg Thomas spoke with Laws, following ...

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Interview

The Case for Hubert Laws

The Case for Hubert Laws

Source: The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins

The 2011 class of National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters, the highest honor this country bestows on living jazz artists and advocates, is not without controversy. There's been much conversation about the unprecedented elevation of the entire Marsalis Family; and just the other day while doing some research at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University's Newark campus, I overheard two musicians debating the merits of Johnny Mandel being named a NEA Jazz Master to represent the composer/arranger's ...

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Recording

Jazzed Media to release new Terry Gibbs/Hubert Laws CD

Jazzed Media to release new Terry Gibbs/Hubert Laws CD

Source: All About Jazz

Jazzed Media is pleased to announce the upcoming release of jazz vibraphonist Terry Gibbs' latest CD with special guest Hubert Laws. Terry Gibbbs is recognized as one of the greatest jazz vibraphone players since the 1940's. Terry is joined by special guest Hubert Laws on flute. The new Terry Gibbs CD Findin' the Groove will be released by Jazzed Media in the Fall of 2006.

Jazzed Media is an independent jazz label based in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area producing ...

Kat Epple
multi-instrumentalist
Lori Bell
flute
Ron Carlson
guitar
Rodrigo Lima
guitar, acoustic
Daniel Jordan
saxophone, tenor
James Olsen
composer / conductor

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Tide

Elemental Music
2021

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MONK'estra Plays John...

Mack Avenue Records
2020

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Flying Waltz

From: Saga
By Hubert Laws

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