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Hubert Laws
Laws plays a sampling of his work and talks about his career and future trends in jazz. An inaugural benefit for the James H. Patterson Foundation for the Preservation of Jazz. Patterson is director of Jazz Studies at Clark Atlanta University.
2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday; $12 and $22; Atlanta University Center Robert. W. Woodruff Library in the Virginia Lacy Jones Exhibition Hall; 111 James P. Brawley Dr. SW, Atlanta, 404-428-4168 or www.jhpfoundation.com
In an era when performers who can’t read a note of music get labeled icons, you have to wonder if a musician such as Hubert Laws doesn’t just sit back and chuckle.
To some degree, the 72-year-old jazz legend does, when he hears singers who are unfamiliar with musical scales or who can’t accompany themselves with an instrument. But more often than not, he shakes his head and wonders how much better they’d be if they really applied themselves the way he was taught to.
Laws, originally from Houston, became a jazz master with an instruments not usually associated with the genre, the flute. An original member of the influential jazz band that later became The Crusaders, Laws has played with Quincy Jones, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Sarah Vaughn, among others. And last year he was inducted as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the nation’s highest honor for a jazz musician. But Laws’ roots are also deep in classical music.
He will headline a benefit concert and lecture Saturday at the Atlanta University Center Library. We spoke with Laws about the importance of improvisation, training and of saying no to mediocrity.
Q: You began your career in classical music, but many consider your signature piece to be your version of “Amazing Grace.”
A: Of all the music I've done throughout my life, my dad did not relate to any of it until I recorded that for him. I bought him a boat, and when he got back from a fishing trip he was hosing down the saltwater from that boat and he was humming "Amazing Grace." And told him, "Dad, I'm going to record that piece for you." That was way back in the 1970s and that piece has followed me the rest of my life. When he first heard it he came to tears.
Q: Piano, clarinet, saxophone, drums, you can play all of these instrument; but what made the flute rise to become your instrument of choice as a jazz musician? That clearly is not an instrument most people tumble to when they think of jazz music.
A: To this day I try to figure out why. But I tell you one thing, the flute, to me, it's a stronger marriage between me and that instrument than it was to me in a real relationship with a woman.
Q: You were classically trained at the Juilliard School and you began your career playing with the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Classical music stresses restraint but your brand of jazz demands improvisation. How do you marry the two urges?
A: I was brought up in the Baptist church where I heard gospel music all the time, and we lived across the street from a honky-tonk that played blues music, so I listened to B.B. King, Big Mama Thornton. I realized later that jazz drew from gospel and that they drew from each other. It was natural. But the instrument that I chose, the flute, is a staple in the symphony orchestra. But I had the experience of blues and gospel in my background, so when the time came for me to play the flute with a classical technique it caused a unique reaction. Music is a language and it uses the same materials, melody, harmony and rhythm. In classical music and jazz and blues, they all have the same elements.
Q: I read a quote where you said “quality is not enjoyed by the majority.” What do you mean by that in terms of music?
A: Oh my goodness, you should know that. Mediocrity is promoted. Most people are not exposed to high-quality music. Just like food, there's a lot of junk out there.
Q: You’re not suggesting that one musical genre is more nutritious than another, are you?
A: I’ve found quality in every genre, but there is some (music) that caters to your more base instincts and has nothing else to offer. It’s not limited by idiom. There’s junk classical music as well. Most people travel a road that caters to the popular, not only in music, but in food, literature. Wide and spacious is the road that leads to destruction, and many are traveling it.
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