“absolutely top-quality soul music… outstanding” – BBC Music
It was in late 2022 that Jarrod Lawson had the biggest, and most unexpected, thrill of his music career. He had just received a glowing endorsement in print from Michelle Obama, in an Entertainment Weekly interview. When asked who she was listening to, after mentioning Beyonce, added “There’s this young jazz, blue-eyed soul kid Jarrod Lawson that I’m loving.”
At the time Jarrod was receiving major airplay in the U.S. and in Europe. Here, this was largely due to his remake of the Isley Brothers Seventies classic “Footsteps In The Dark”. This followed his 2020 sophomore album Be the Change. That album made its mark immediately, with entries at #1 on Amazon’s Jazz Albums chart and at #2 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.
For singer/songwriter/keyboardist Lawson, the appreciation of his music in his native U.S. was particularly gratifying. His 2014 breakthrough had been primarily in Europe, where in a whirlwind couple of years he played festival, club and concert dates in fifteen countries. Additionally, this included the North Sea Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival and the world-renowned Ronnie Scott’s Club. Furthermore, he powered his way into the Dutch Top Forty Albums chart.
He has since performed around the world in Tokyo, Beijing, Melbourne and at Indonesia’s Java Jazz festival. Further, in the U.S. he has performed at many of the leading jazz venues from New York to Seattle.
The album is a beautiful, restrained, dreamy mix of love songs, irreverence and social commentary. Thus, SoulTracks.com described the album as “a masterpiece”. Also, they hailed it “an instant classic that would have fit just as comfortably in 1970 as it does in 2020”.
Recommended for fans of Stevie Wonder, Bobby Caldwell, Rachelle Ferrell and Rahsaan Patterson.
