Ronnie Laws

Eddie Harris was one of the funkiest tenor saxophonists in modern jazz. Though he was essentially a dynamic straight ahead, mainstream-based performer, he also found a way to reach wider audiences with appealing, rhyth-rooted tunes like "Listen Here" and "Cold Duck Time" that were as much for dancing as listening.

Who better, then, to pay tribute to the wondrous Harris, who died on November 5, 1996 at age 62 of bone cancer and kidney disease, than Ronnie Laws, a seamless soprano saxophonist at home both as a traditionalist and crossover artist. From his first albums Pressure Sensitive and Fever, made for Blue Note in the mid-to-late '70s, Laws revealed a capacity for percolating, persuasive performances that moved listeners. He brings that same flair, vigor and spirit to Tribute To The Legendary Eddie Harris, Laws' first album for Blue Note in almost 20 years.

Laws generated the idea for the project, mainly because he had been a big admirer of Harris' though the years. "He was one of my earliest influences and we played on some of the same shows," and because he wanted to make a contribution: by both keeping the jazz great's name in the public eye and by indirectly aiding Harris' family via royalty payments by recording his songs.

Houston-native Laws talks about the impact Harris had on him, as an individual, and an artist. "I always like the fact that he wasn't inhibited by his contemporaries, that he always maintained his own style, something that could be identified," Laws says. He told me, "Don't pay attention to the critics. Just be yourself.' That was encouraging."

By recording many of Harris' more popular numbers, Laws wanted "to resurrect his catalog, so to speak," he says. The numbers include "Listen Here," "Freedom Jazz Dance," "Boogie Woogie Bossa Nova," "Sham Time," "Cold Duck Time" and that one non-Harris vehicle that he may be most famed for: Gene McDaniels' "Compared To What."

"These are the songs that I grew up listening to," Laws says. "They became my personal favorites. I'm also hoping these are the songs that the general public would most instantly recognize."

Laws is renowned for such rousing R&B/jazz hits as "Always There" and "Friends and Strangers," both recorded for Blue Note and currently available on The Best Of Ronnie Laws. But for Tribute To The Legendary Eddie Harris, we hear a much more mainstream Laws, and that was his intention. "I wanted to maintain the acoustic, sort of bebop approach, with the upright bass and acoustic piano," Laws says. "That way, I could retain the essence of the '60s period in which Eddie recorded these songs while still trying to balance his style with my contemporary approach. That was a challenge: try to maintain the integrity of the songs but also employ my style as well, which is a combination of modern elements."

The numbers, from the driving vamp of "Freedom Jazz Dance" and the rhythmic bubble of "Listen Here" to the pulsating "Hip Hoppin' " and the relaxed mood of "Boogie Woogie Bossa Nova," each crackle with a special vitality.

This is the combined result of the appeal of the tunes themselves, Laws' performances, and those of his side personnel. The band includes pianist Vernell Brown, Jr., bassist Mike Elizando, drummer Jeffrey Suttles, guitarist Craig. T. Cooper and percussionist Darryl Munyungo Jackson. "I put this unit together especially for this album," says Laws. Laws was in touch with Harris in the weeks before he died. "We spent some time together," he says. "Eddie did most of the talking, just reminiscing about his experiences. I had wanted to play the album for Eddie, but he passed the day we finished mixing."

Ronnie Laws was born in Houston, TX into a musical family that includes his brother, the highly regarded flutist/saxophonist Hubert Laws, and two singing sisters: Eloise and Debra Laws. He began musical studies at age 11 on alto saxophone. "I was drawn to the instrument," he says. "And my mother used to tell me that in school she wanted to play saxophone. So I told her, 'Since you never did, I'll do it for you.' "

Laws studied music in high school, then at both Stephen F. Austin State University and Texas Southern University. In 1970, he moved to Los Angeles and started playing tenor in an R&B band. By then, his multi-musical style was already well developed. "I grew up having experience in various styles of music," he says. "In Texas, there was a heavy blues and gospel influence, plus I heard Motown, jazz. You absorb all those things."

Later, Laws worked with jazz players, including pianist Walter Bishop, Jr., and organist Doug Carn, with arguably the first world musician, South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, and with the powerhouse contemporary black band, Earth, Wind and Fire. He also teamed with his siblings in The Family Laws, a band that ultimately played Carnegie Hall (in the mid-'80s, and the Playboy Jazz Festival (in 1995).

Laws always had his eye on Blue Note, he says. And in 1975, he made his first album, Pressure Sensitive, for the label. The album went gold behind the big jazz hit, drummer William Jeffrey's "Always There," which became Laws' theme song. Laws followed this impressive opener with 1976's Fever (currently available as a reissue CD) and 1979's Friends And Strangers, which also sold over 500,000 units. Moving to United Artists in 1980, he made a series of fine contemporary recordings that included Flame (1980), Every Generation (1981, it also went gold), and Mr. Nice Guy (1983). 1986 found Laws at Columbia Records for Mirror Town, which he followed with All Day Rhythm in 1987. In the early '90s, The reedman recorded two albums for Par Records, True Spirit and Deep Soul, and Blue Note issued The Best Of Ronnie Laws. In 1995, Laws made Natural Laws, released on Right Stuff Records.

Now Ronnie Laws is back where he belongs, on Blue Note, with the dynamic Tribute To The Legendary Eddie Harris. It's a fine album that shows the versatility and continued allure of this frontline contemporary saxophonist.