Soul Strutter: Jarrod Lawson

Friday, 16 September 2022

Jarrod Lawson - A Profile

Singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist (and one time stonemason and piano tuner) Jarrod Lawson from Portland, Oregon, (born in Redwood City, CA) is 46 today.

He burst onto the scene in 2014 with his highly acclaimed eponymous debut album released in the UK by Dome on CD but Soul Brother reissued it on vinyl in 2018. The album gained him a headline spot at the legendary Ronnie Scott's club in Soho, London in Oct 2014. Later that year he also released a live four track EP "Jarrod Lawson At The BBC" recorded at London’s historic BBC Maida Vale studios and broadcast on the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Show. In 2020 Izipho Soul released an instrumental album "Visions" by him under the alias Orpheus on vinyl.

Lawson won Soul Artist Of The Year at the Jazz FM Awards in 2015 and has been dubbed "the hottest talent to hit soul music in at least ten years" by Echoes magazine.

His latest album "Be The Change" hit the streets just as the Covid pandemic hit in 2020 and it was almost 18 months later before he was able to tour to promote the album. He is joined on the album by Grammy winning Cuban percussionist Sammy Figueroa along with Cory Limuaco (drums), Chris Friesen (bass), and Trent Baarspul (guitar) with a guest appearance by Moonchild vocalist Amber Navran on the Prince-like "I'll Be Your Radio" as well as Moonchild's Andris Mattson (flugelhorn) and Max Bryk (clarinet).

Whilst there are loads of live videos of Jarrod performing on YouTube, his first ever music video was for the title track "Be The Change" (included below).

As well as Capital Jazz Festival in Baltimore, he has completed many international tours including Rotterdam’s North Sea Jazz, UK's Love Supreme festival, Java Jazz festival in Indonesia, with performances in Beijing, Melbourne and at Tokyo’s Billboard Live.

Not surprisingly Jarrod was influenced by Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway from exploring his father's record collection as a youngster, along with D'Angelo later. He learned to play piano from 13 and joined his college's music programme singing and playing piano for the college jazz ensemble.

Jarrod married young and divorced not long before his debut album was released but has married Evalee Gertz on 25 June 2022 at Cave Creek Farm, Trout Lake, WA, where they first met in the summer of 2018. Hence the track "Evalee" on "Be The Change".

I've selected some of his best tracks from his three albums, EP and a couple of singles, kicking off with what I think is probably his best, "All The Time", a duet with Tahira Memory (who appeared with him live for several years) from her debut album "Pride" 2015. Followed closely by "Love Isn't Always Enough" which he wrote after the breakdown of his first marriage.