released February 2, 2024
Lawrence Fields - Piano
Yasushi Nakamura - Bass
Corey Fonville - Drums
All Songs Composed by Lawrence Fields
(Khameleon Music BMI)
Except: I Fall in Love Too Easily (Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn)
Recorded and Mixed at Big Orange Sheep, NYC
Produced by Lawrence Fields
Executive Producers - Stephen Meyner and Elmar Gillet
Recording Engineer - Chris Benham
Assistant Rec. Engineer - Cat Evers
Mix Engineer - Michael Perez-Cisneros
Mastering Engineer - Elmar Gillet
It was a close call: one of the most promising young jazz pianists and keyboard players of his generation might instead have become another computer nerd. Born in St. Louis in 1983, Lawrence grew up in a comfortably well-off middle-class family. His mother’s piano lessons clashed with his enthusiasm for sports and other leisure activities, and they were soon discontinued. It was not until high school that he began playing percussion in the school orchestra. But by the age of 17, he was already fully immersed in the world of IT, earning his first money as a software developer. Some frustration with that world led him to become involved in the local jazz scene at the same time, and before long his trio was being hired whenever jazz greats such as singer Oscar Brown Jr. needed a rhythm section for an engagement in St. Louis.
He received further encouragement from pianist Cyrus Chestnut, and eventually won a scholarship to Berklee. From that point on, there was little standing in the way of a career as a professional musician. He embarked on his first tours with stars such as Jeff “Tain” Watts, and soon afterwards with Nicholas Payton, Branford Marsalis and Christian McBride.
After graduating from Berklee in 2008, he began a close collaboration with trumpeter Christian Scott and saxophonist Joe Lovano, who featured him in his Classic Quartet and in his quintet Sound Fields, alongside Dave Douglas. It was with the latter that producer Stephan Meyner heard him in the summer of 2022 at Vienna’s Porgy & Bess club. Meyner was scouting for new talent for his newly established label, Rhythm ’n’ Flow Records. When Fields learned that a former producer of some of his idols, including Geri Allen and Maceo Parker, had taken an interest in him, the timing could hardly have been better. He had already been planning his long-overdue debut album, which had been postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finding a mutually suitable date for Lawrence to enter the studio with his two musicians of choice proved far from easy. Bassist Yasushi Nakamura, who has worked with Christian Sands, Cécile McLorin Salvant and others, and drummer Corey Fonville, known for his work with Christian Scott and Butcher Brown, are among the most sought-after musicians of their generation.
For his debut, Lawrence chose to focus entirely on acoustic music. Featuring nine original compositions, the album introduces him as a highly individual composer with a richly layered repertoire. His compositions are characterised by a complete absence of clichés and the familiar borrowing of conventions from various genres.
Deeply rooted in jazz history - with Oscar Peterson and Herbie Hancock among his influences - he draws on that tradition to create a modern vision of jazz that places rhythm and improvisation at its centre. With every solo, he tells a story, developing in expansive, progressive arcs with intense concentration until it reaches its conclusion, always embedded in the almost instinctively assured interplay with his fellow musicians.
