# Hubert Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/11/10/hubert-laws/
- Published: 2017-11-10T00:22:19+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**10.11. – Happy Birthday !!! Internationally renowned flutist Hubert Laws is one
of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz and rhythm-and-blues genres;
moving effortlessly from one repertory to another. He has appeared as a soloist 
with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, with the orchestras of Los Angeles,
Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland, Amsterdam, Japan, Detroit and with the Stanford String
Quartet. **

He has given annual performances at Carnegie Hall, and has performed sold out performances
in the Hollywood Bowl with fellow flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and was a member of
the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras. In addition, he has
appeared at the Montreux, Playboy, and Kool Jazz festivals; he performed with the
Modern Jazz Quartet at the Hollywood Bowl in 1982 and with the Detroit Symphony 
in 1994. His recordings have won three Grammy nominations.

Mr. Laws has been involved in unique projects such as collaborations with Quincy
Jones, Bob James, and Claude Bolling for Neil Simon’s comedy California Suite, a
collaboration with Earl Klugh and Pat Williams on the music for How to Beat the 
High Cost of Living: and film scores for The Wiz, Color Purple, A Hero Ain’t Nothing
but a Sandwich, and Spot Marks the X.

There are 20 albums in Mr. Laws’ discography for such record companies as: Atlantic,
CBS, CTI, including: “My Time Will Come,” and “Storm Then The Calm” for the Music
Masters record label.

Session work also remains a staple of Hubert Laws’ schedule, and includes collaborations
and recordings with such artists as Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Chick
Corea, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Freddie Hubbard, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon,
Aretha Franklin, Lena Horne, Sergio Mendes, Bob James, Carly Simon, Clark Terry,
Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.

In addition, Mr. Laws maintains his own publishing companies, Hulaws Music and Golden
Flute Music, and he founded Spirit Productions in 1976 to produce his own albums
and those of promising new artists. He was selected the No. 1 flutist in Down Beat
readers’ polls ten years in a row and was the critic’s choice seven consecutive 
years.

Born in Houston, Mr. Laws’ musical education came from various sources. He grew 
up directly across from a honky- tonk called Miss Mary’s Place, his grandfather 
played the harmonica, and his mother played gospel music on the piano. His classical
training got under way in high school. He later enrolled in the music department
at Texas Southern University. During this period, he arranged to study privately
with Clement Barone who Mr. Laws considers had a profound effect on his development.
From there he traveled to Los Angeles with the Jazz Crusaders where he won a scholarship
to the Juilliard School of music in New York City. Mr. Laws completed his studies
and obtained his degree at the Juilliard School of music in New York City under 
tutelage of the renowned flutist Julius Baker.

**HUBERT LAWS’ MUSICAL BACKGROUND**

Hubert’s musical education has always been an amalgamation. For starters, his boyhood
home was directly across the street from an honest-to-goodness honky-tonk, Miss 
Mary’s Place, which still sits on the same spot in Houston’s Studewood section. 
His grandfather played the harmonica and often entertained as a one-man band. His
mother, Miola, played gospel music on piano.

The second of eight children in a musical family, Hubert grew up playing rhythm 
and blues and gospel at dances in the neighborhood. Brother Ronnie and sisters, 
Eloise and Debra, have all made their mark in the music industry, while sister Blanche
has devoted her talent to gospel singing and brother Johnnie has contributed his
voice on Hubert’s recordings. It’s fitting that Hubert’s fourth album for Columbia
was entitled Family, featuring almost the entire Laws clan.

Starting out on Piano then Mellophone and alto sax, Hubert picked up the flute in
high school while volunteering to fill-in on a flute solo performance with his high
school orchestra. Music teacher, Clement Barone, is credited with teaching Hubert
the fundamentals. During his early teens, Hubert was exposed to jazz by high school
band director Sammy Harris at Phillis Wheatley High School. He enjoyed the freedom
of improvisation and the creativity allowed by jazz and began playing regularly 
with a Houston group known variously as the Swingsters, the Modern Jazz Sextet, 
Night Hawks, the Jazz Crusaders, and more recently, the Crusaders.

After high school, Hubert enrolled in the Music Department at Texas Southern University.
After two years there he left with the Crusaders for Los Angeles. This soon became
a point of departure to the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Winning a scholarship
that would cover the cost of tuition in 1960, Hubert left for New York in a 1950
Plymouth Sedan with $600.00 in his pocket. Fondly remembering the moment he realized
his savings would not cover the necessities of life in New York, Hubert recalled,“
It was the fall of 1960. I was down to my last fifty bucks and wondering what to
do when the phone rang and it was a call offering me my first job at Sugar Ray’s
Lounge in Harlem. Times were tough then, but, I haven’t looked back since.”

Studying all day every day in class or with master flautist Julius Baker, evenings
were devoted to gigging for support. Soon Hubert was playing with the likes of Mongo
Santamaria, Lloyd Price Big Band, John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, the Orchestra
USA, and the Berkshire Festival Orchestra at Tanglewood — summer home of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra.

Recording session work became a staple of Hubert’s schedule and included Quincy 
Jones, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Lena Horne, James Moody, Sergio
Mendes, Bob James, Carly Simon, George Benson, Clark Terry, and J.J. Johnson. During
those tough times, the ability to play R&B and jazz enabled him not only to survive,
but to thrive. Hubert believes musicians would do well to learn how to play in a
variety of musical idioms.

![Картинки по запросу Hubert Laws](https://i2.wp.com/www.eyeshotjazz.com/wp-content/
uploads/2012/06/hubert-laws-3.jpg)

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