Jarrod Lawson

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Soul Artist of the Year Jarrod Lawson surprised guests at The Jazz FM Awards 2015 with a beautiful cover of ‘A Song For You’.

I don’t think I can find an appropriate superlative to describe how gifted this young man really is and to make comparisons between him and Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, Leroy Hutson and Stevie Wonder 2017 is in my opinion no way sacreligious as he is overly bestowed with all the qualities that have made the aforementioned into legends. For all that he has perfected his own trademark sound that is steeped in soul, jazz, gospel, latin and blues, all elements he has distilled to perfection to produce his seminal self titled debut lp. And India.Arie says about Anthony: “He’s a great talent and one of my oldest friends. Not only did he encourage me to start performing professionally but it was him who suggested I use my first and middle name as an artist. There was even a time when he spent his rent money for me to experiment in the studio” Oh yeah. Absolutely. I’ve already got three songs that I have been previewing to people on our last few tours that will be on the next album - ‘Soul Symphony,’ ‘Connected,’ and ‘Not Gonna Let Them’, three songs that I’ve been mixing into the set. It will be very soulful, it will be very jazzy also, but even a little bit more, whereas I think my debut album was maybe leaning slightly more to the jazz side, this one is going to be leaning slightly more to the soul side.He is accompanied by a band that benefits from the rhythmic presence of Grammy-nominated percussionist Sammy Figueroa, whose playing in a lengthy career has graced albums by artists as diverse as Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Hall & Oates, Carole King and Chic. Hearing the song Universal Chord from Jarrod Lawson’s new album Be the Change had much the same effect as Take 6 did all those years ago, and it’s just as good, if not better. I think so. The US has its markets - Atlanta, New York - for this type of music but when I’ve come over here I’ve gotten a great reception, everywhere I go - and it’s not just the UK, it’s all over Europe. The label has been blessed to work with so many talented artists from the US and UK in its quest to deliver the finest in soul, R&B and dance music, and many of its newer followers from around the world are only now beginning to discover just how many gems there are in the Dome catalogue. This compilation will help that process of discovery, and there are many more great artists to be featured in Volume 2. Jarrod Lawson, the singer-songwriter-keyboardist from Portland, Oregon who emerged seemingly out of nowhere at 37 with a debut album that took the jazz and soul world by storm, has completed recording of his long awaited second album.

For the first time in 10 years Atlanta vocalists Anthony David and Algebra Blessett come together for an emotionally charged performance of the 1988 BeBe and CeCe Winans #1 Gospel and R&B hit “Heaven”. Their acoustic version of the song – which has received praise from BeBe Winans himself - has now become a Billboard Top 10 Gospel hit, with airplay on more than 100 Gospel and Adult R&B radio stations across the US. Jarrod is Blessed with a voice steeped in reverence for the great soul singers that have gone before him. Yet he brings a fresh unique approach and sound of all his own. Jarrod expresses this in his innovative arrangements and original compositions as well.Jarrod’s first memories were made exploring his own father’s recording studio in Redwood City, California—the family residence at the time. His parents still declare that it was never difficult to find young Jarrod; just follow the sound of humming or drumming. At two years of age, Jarrod had found his way to the drum-kit which created in him a highly rhythmic sensibility that can be witnessed in his keyboard playing to this day. His profound ability at bass support creates a rhythm section of his left hand alone. In a trio setting with guitar and drums, it was once remarked that the band needed no bass player as “a bassist would just get in Jarrod’s way.” Full Flava, led by UK producer/songwriter Rob Derbyshire, have over the past couple of years released a series of remixes of key songs from their 20-year history. Working with a stellar line-up of US and UK female vocalists - including CeCe Peniston, Chantay Savage, Carleen Anderson, Donna Gardier and Incognito’s Joy Rose - they cover a wide range of styles from disco to Latin, soulful house to soul-jazz. It has been. For me, I think the whole experience is so humbling because I never expected any of this. I didn’t record my album thinking this is going to stir up the world and change things… I hoped that it would do good things and that it would be an opportunity for me and be a launching pad for me to share what I do with the world but I never could have predicted the trajectory that I’ve been on now for the last year. It’s been incredible. Jarrod’s ‘I Would Die 4 U’ feature accompaniment from Tyrone Hendrix (drums) and Chance Hayden (guitar), both fixtures of the live music scene in Portland, Oregon, where Jarrod lived for most of his life until deciding in late 2022 to relocate to Nashville in search of new musical challenges.