After setting the soul scene alight - especially in the UK - in the early 2000s, New Jersey vocalist Dennis Taylor is being discovered, and re-discovered, by a growing audience around the world in 2022, thanks in large part to a series of new remixes. 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.” 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 flew in from Chicago. We were doing a little US tour and we were right on the tail end of the tour when I got the call: ‘we’d really like to bring you to London for this award show,’ and I was like (laughs) okay, I’d better not go home then. So I literally flew straight from Chicago. How does it compare with the USA, then? Is it harder to make an impact there because it’s so large? 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.The venues will provide all the details. And remember that is his first ever solo tour, just Jarrod and a grand piano at intimate venues. We believe that the four London performances are already sold out. 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. Timing is everything in music, but launching an album in the midst of a global pandemic was not ideal for singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Jarrod Lawson. As he prepares to embark on a European tour, he will finally get the chance to feature the music from his second album Be the Change in front of live audiences. Good news for the many fans of JARROD LAWSON in particular and lovers of classy, jazz-flavoured soul in general… the now Nashville-based singer/songwriter is releasing some new music and going out on the road!

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’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. I think for this album I’ll probably produce myself again. For the third album I’ve toyed with the idea - not because I have to, just because it will be fun - of maybe reaching out to somebody like, say Omar, just because I think the result could be really special.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. This October the phenomenon that is Jarrod Lawson arrives in Europe. With his brand of harmony laden and spiritually charged soul jazz he has taken the damage quality music world by storm. 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” Among the other original recordings included are the Rahsaan Patterson-composed Want, a collaboration with UK vocalist Beverlei Brown on Could Be You, Taylor’s beautiful take on the Anita Baker classic Angel and his version of the Kenny Gamble-Bunny Sigler song Love, Need and Want You, first recorded in the Eighties by Patti Labelle.

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. During my 40 plus years of being an appreciative music collector I can only recall a handful of lp’s that have touched Review me so emphatically on first listen and continued to do so on subsequent listens. From the opening syncopated beats of ‘Music & Its Magical Way’, where Jarrod entreats us “welcome”, to the luscious closing flute, synth motif of ‘Gotta Keep’ you know you have been on a beautiful journey. A journey filled with harmonies so all embracing you nach have to catch yourself to stay rooted Tongue to the floor (‘All That Surrounds’ and ‘He’s There’ need special mention in that respect). He is also master of the jazz keyboard as is displayed so deftly in the soul/ latin jazz mash up of ‘Think About Why’. ‘Needed’ can only be described as a soul classic with it’s impressive arrangement and Jarrods sweet as cheap nba jerseys honey falsetto vocals.

Live @ North Sea Jazz Festival

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. http://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/interviews/3435-jazz-fm-award-winner-jarrod-lawson-talks-exclusively-to-sjf.html Formerly held close as one of the Pacific Northwest’s best-kept musical secrets, Jarrod Lawson has exploded as an international sensation, garnering awards, performing at prestigious venues and spawning fresh notability for Portland’s burgeoning soul/jazz music scene. Ever since Lawson released his eponymous debut album in 2014, the smokey voiced singer-songwriter and virtuoso pianist has been sending positive ripples around the globe with his powerful message music. He has completed six successful international tours with prestigious highlights extending from Rotterdam’s North Sea Jazz and the UK’s Love Supreme festivals to Java Jazz festival in Indonesia, with performances in Beijing, Melbourne and at Tokyo’s Billboard Live. His very first overseas performance was at the world famous Ronnie Scott’s Club in London in 2014, following which the Jazzwise reviewer wrote: “With the deafening buzz surrounding this gig Lawson has to show and prove, and he does so and then some, pretty much from the downbeat” 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. Says Anthony: Algebra and I really enjoy working together, both on stage and in the studio. We chose ‘Heaven’ for our first duet in a long while because it’s a feel good classic we grew up on”.