Doug Lawrence (born October 11, 1956) is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

tenor saxophonist from

Lake Charles, Louisiana Lake Charles is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, fifth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the county seat, parish seat of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, Calcasieu Parish, located on Lake Charles (Louisiana), Lake Char ...

Early life

Lawrence, the youngest of six children, was born into a musical family in

, and raised in

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

. His father and two of his older three brothers were professional musicians who worked and recorded with

Jack Teagarden Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 – January 15, 1964) was an United States, American jazz Trombone, trombonist and singer. He led both of his bands himself and was a sideman for Paul Whiteman's orchestra. From 1946 to 1951, he played ...

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

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Edgar Winter Edgar Holland Winter (born December 28, 1946) is an American multi-instrumentalist, working as a vocalist along with playing keyboards, saxophone, and percussion. His success peaked in the 1970s with his band the Edgar Winter Group and their pop ...

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and others, and both of his sisters played musical instruments. His mother was a dancer and played piano. Lawrence graduated high school from

Highland High School (Albuquerque, New Mexico) Highland High School is a public high school located in southeast Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. It is part of the Albuquerque Public Schools District. The school's mascot is Herbie the Hornet, named after a naval ship, the aircraft ca ...

and studied music at

North Texas State University The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...

, the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

and was a member of the Jazz Knights, a jazz ensemble of the

West Point Band The West Point Band (also known as the U.S. Military Academy Band or USMA Band) is the U.S. Army's oldest active-duty band and the oldest unit at the United States Military Academy. An act of Congress (Military Peace Establishment Act) issued o ...

Career

Lawrence spent over 25 years in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, collaborating with

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...

Roy Eldridge David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from ...

Nancy Wilson (jazz singer) Nancy Sue Wilson (February 20, 1937 – December 13, 2018) was an American singer whose career spanned over five decades, from the mid-1950s until her retirement in the early 2010s. She was especially notable for her single "(You Don't Know) How ...

Joe Williams (jazz singer) Joe Williams (born Joseph Goreed; December 12, 1918 – March 29, 1999) was an American jazz singer. He sang with big bands, such as the Count Basie Orchestra and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, and with small combos. He sang in two films with th ...

Teri Thornton Teri Thornton, born Shirley Enid Avery (September 1, 1934 – May 2, 2000) was an American jazz singer and piano player. Thornton first performed in local Detroit clubs in the 1950s. She moved to New York City in the 1960s, where she found work ...

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...

and others. He has also recorded with many prominent jazz musicians such as

Buck Clayton Wilbur Dorsey "Buck" Clayton (November 12, 1911 – December 8, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter who was a member of Count Basie's orchestra. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong, first hearing the record " Confessin' that I Love You" ...

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...

Wild Bill Davis Wild Bill Davis (November 24, 1918 – August 17, 1995) was the stage name of American jazz pianist, organist, and arranger William Strethen Davis. He is best known for his pioneering jazz electric organ recordings and for his tenure with t ...

Hank Jones Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians have described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts h ...

Mel Lewis Melvin Sokoloff (May 10, 1929 – February 2, 1990), known professionally as Mel Lewis, was an American jazz drummer, session musician, professor, and author. He received fourteen Grammy Award nominations. Biography Early years Lewis was ...

Frank Wess Frank Wellington Wess (January 4, 1922 – October 30, 2013) was an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. He was renowned for his extensive solo work; however, he was also remembered for his time playing with Count Basie, Count Basie's band duri ...

Grover Mitchell Grover Mitchell, born Grover Curry Mitchell (March 17, 1930 – August 6, 2003) was an American jazz trombonist who led the Count Basie Orchestra. Biography Mitchell was born in Whately, Alabama, but he moved with his parents to Pittsburgh, Pen ...

Loren Schoenberg Loren Schoenberg (born July 23, 1958) is a tenor saxophonist, conductor, educator, and jazz historian. He has won two Grammy Awards for Best Album Notes. He is the former executive director and currently senior scholar of the National Jazz Museum ...

, Butch Miles and

Jimmy Cobb Wilbur James "Jimmy" Cobb (January 20, 1929May 24, 2020) was an American jazz drummer. He was part of Miles Davis's First Great Sextet. He was awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship in 2009. Early life Cobb was born in Washington, D.C., on J ...

as well as recording six albums as a leader - "Soul Carnival", "High Heel Sneakers", "Big Band Swing" "Street Wise" and "Doug Lawrence and Friends". Lawrence served in the

's Jazz Knights in the early 1980s as the lead tenor saxophonist. Lawrence has been a featured performer at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

, the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

, the

Village Vanguard The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jaz ...

, the

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 23, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Av ...

and at international concert halls and jazz festivals including the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

, the

Moscow International House of Music The Moscow International Performing Arts Centre was officially opened on September 28, 2003 with the debut of a new orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Russia under musical director Vladimir Spivakov. Also known as the Moscow International ...

, the

Blue Note Tokyo Blue Note Tokyo is a jazz venue in Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan. It is a branch of Blue Note Jazz Club in New York and located about 400 metres east of the Aoyama Gakuin University. It has been described as Tokyo's best venue for live jazz. It was esta ...

, Telluride Jazz Celebration and the

North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is a festival held annually on the second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. The festival moved to Rotterdam in 2006 after the demolition of the Statenhal in The Hague where it was originally held. ...

. Since 1996 Lawrence has been, and is currently, the featured tenor saxophone soloist with the

Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16- to 18-piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 19 ...

. In 2020 Lawrence began working with the iconic organist

Joey DeFrancesco Joey DeFrancesco (April 10, 1971August 25, 2022) was an American jazz organist, trumpeter, saxophonist, and occasional singer. He released more than 30 albums under his own name, and recorded extensively as a sideman with such leading jazz perfo ...

in DeFrancesco's "Tenor Madness" band. After Mr DeFrancesco's untimely death on August 25, 2022, the band briefly continued on with Dan Trudell taking Mr DeFrancesco's place on organ. This band featured longtime

Harry Connick Jr. Joseph Harry Fowler Connick Jr. (born September 11, 1967) is an American singer, pianist, composer, actor, and former television host. As of 2019, he has sold over 30 million records worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top60 best-selling ma ...

tenor saxophonist Jerry Weldon and Lawrence in a quartet or quintet setting. Lawrence also works regularly with pianist

George Cables George Andrew Cables (born November 14, 1944) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Early life Cables was born in New York City, United States. He was initially taught piano by his mother. He then studied at the High School of Performing Art ...

among others. Lawrence leads his own Trio, Quartet, Quintet or Sextet as well as a latin jazz band called Doug Lawrence y Su Nuevo Mexicanos. Lawrence frequently appears as guest clinician and artist-in-residence at universities and jazz camps around the world.

Personal life

Lawrence lives in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, USA.

Discography

As leader

* ''Soul Carnival'' (Fable/Lightyear/WEA 1997) * ''High Heel Sneakers'' (Fable/Lightyear/WEA 1998) * ''Big Band Swing'' (Black Orchid 2001) * ''Street Wise'' (AllTribe 2002) * ''Doug Lawrence New Organ Trio'' (Cactus 2014) * ''Doug Lawrence and Friends'' (Junkie Jazz 2021)

As sideman

* Richard Allen, ''Gone with the Wind'' (JazzInn 1999) * Count Basie Orchestra, ''All About That Basie'' (Concord 2018) * Count Basie Orchestra, ''A Very Swinging Basie Christmas'' (Concord 2015) * Count Basie Orchestra, ''Ella 100: Live At The Apollo'' (Concord 2020) * Count Basie Orchestra, ''Late Night Basie'' (Primary Wave Music 2023) * Count Basie Orchestra, ''Live At Birdland'' (Candid 2021) * Count Basie Orchestra, ''Live in Japan'' (Sony 2006) * Count Basie Orchestra, ''Singing, Swinging, Playing'' (Mack Avenue 2009) * Count Basie Orchestra, ''The Count Basie Orchestra Swings The Blues'' (Candid 2023) * Hinton Battle, ''Meets the Count Basie Orchestra'' (Sony 2013) * Tony Bennett, ''A Swingin' Christmas'' (Columbia 2008) * Isrea Butler, ''Congo Lament'' (Vegas 2024) * Ray Charles, ''Ray Sings, Basie Swings'' (Concord 2007) * James Chirillo, ''The Doug Lawrence Trio'' (DoLaDi 1981) * Buck Clayton, ''A Swingin' Dream'' (Stash 1989) * Buck Clayton, ''Live at the Village Vangauard'' (Nagel Hayer 1991) * Buck Clayton, ''New York Ballads'' (Nagel Hayer 2020) * Buck Clayton, ''Swings The Village'' (Nagel Hayer 2002) * Rosemary Clooney, ''Live At Ravinia'' (PBS/WTTW 2001) * Tony Corbiscello, ''In Full Swing'' (Allanna 1999) * Jamie Cullum, ''The Pursuit'' (Verve 2009) * Wild Bill Davis Trio, ''Live At The West End'' (WKCR 1990) * Massamo Faraò, ''Body and Soul featuring Doug Lawrence'' (Azzura 2023) * Massamo Faraò, ''The Great Saxophone Jazz Lounge featuring Doug Lawrence and Jerry Weldon'' (Azzura 2023) * Dave Glasser and Doug Lawrence, ''Two For The Road'' (Cactus 2024) * Nneenna Freelon, ''Blueprint of a Lady'' (Concord 2005) * Jeff Jeroloman and George Cables, ''Swing Thing'' (Candid 1993) * George V. Johnson, ''Live at the JazzInn'' (JazzInn 2001) * Martha Lorin, ''The Time Is Now'' (Carmel 1993) * Butch Miles, ''Straight On Till Morning'' (Nagel Hayer 2003) * Grover Mitchell, ''Truckin'' (Stash 1987) * Grover Mitchell, ''Hip Shakin'' (Ken 1990) * Grover Mitchell, ''Live In Paris'' (Radio France 1987) * New York Voices, ''Sing, Sing, Sing'' (Concord 2000) * Ken Peplowski, ''A Good Reed'' (Concord 1997) * Sammy Price, ''Two Tenor Boogie featuring Percy France and Doug Lawrence'' (WKCR 1990) * Loren Schoenberg, ''Just a Sittin' and a Rockin (Musicmasters 1990) * Loren Schoenberg, ''Manhattan Work Song'' (Music Masters 1993) * Loren Schoenberg, ''Out of This World'' (Montreux 1998) * Loren Schoenberg, ''Time Waits for No One'' (Music Masters 1992) * Cynthia Scott, ''I Just Want to Know'' (Itocs 1998) * Bobby Short, ''You're the Top'' (Telarc 1999) * Debra Silver, ''Basie Rocks'' (Green Hill 2025) * Debra Silver, ''Swinging Through The Holidays'' (Green Hill 2024) * Clyde Stubblefield, ''B3 Bombers Live at the Green Mill'' (AllTribe 2002) * Jimmy Sturr, ''Jimmy Sturr Orchestra Polka Disco'' (RBS 1979) * Teri Thornton, ''Good Morning Heartache'' (Monte Carlo 1988) * John Trentacosta, ''Meets Doug Lawrence, Desert Bop'' (Cactus 2019)

References

External links

Doug Lawrence official website

Count Basie website
Richard Barnhart
Jimmy Cobb website

Doug Lawrence Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2022) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Doug 1956 births Living people American jazz tenor saxophonists American male saxophonists Hard bop saxophonists Swing saxophonists Musicians from Lake Charles, Louisiana United States Military Academy people United States Army Band musicians 21st-century American saxophonists Jazz musicians from Louisiana 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Musicians from Albuquerque, New Mexico Musicians from New Mexico Jazz musicians from New Mexico