Josh Lawrence and his jazz quintet will be the next performers at the Pastorius Park Concert Series on Wednesday, July 5.

by Carole Verona

“The audience is going to have a good time. They’re going to see five people on stage having a blast. We joke; we get serious; we’re comfortable playing music with each other. So essentially you’re joining our world for a while,” said Josh Lawrence, speaking about his jazz quintet’s first appearance at Pastorius Park. The concert takes place on Wednesday, July 5, at 7:30 p.m.

Once again, the free Pastorius Park series is produced by the Chestnut Hill Community Association and is sponsored by Chestnut Hill Hospital. The Josh Lawrence Color Theory Quintet is sponsored by The Terrace at Chestnut Hill.

Performing with Lawrence, who plays trumpet and flugelhorn, will be Caleb Curtis, alto saxophone; Adam Faulk, piano; Madison Rast, bass, and Anwar Marshall, drums.

The quintet will perform songs from Lawrence’s recently released “Color Theory” CD and some new music that will be recorded in September. “Color Theory” received a 4-star review from Downbeat magazine.

Last year, Lawrence curated a jazz series at Jose Garces’ Volvér restaurant at the Kimmel Center.

“I was rotating different musicians to find the right chemistry to form a band and all the pieces fit together as far as who I wanted to write some music for,” he said.

“Once that was set, I had a clearer idea to do different songs based on colors. One reason was to give me some context to work with as far as writing music that wasn’t specifically linked to location or characters, which was like a lot of my music in the past. I wanted to do something a little more impressionistic. It gave me a palette to work with.

“The other thing I found interesting is that you can present colors to an audience and each person has a different way of interacting with the music. Two people might have completely different ideas of what the color red represents to them. So whether you are a musician or not, you can participate with us in the creation of the music.”

Composing the songs for the CD started on the day Prince passed away.

“So ‘Purple’ was the first song I wrote,” Lawrence said. “I had this melody in my head for a while and on the day he passed away the melody jumped into my head. And after I heard the news, I knew the song would be ‘Purple.’”

Each song based on a color has a different story behind it.

“I didn’t talk about it too much with people because I want them to make their own impressions and not have them be stuck in what my thought was on each one,” he added.

“Presence,” one of the few songs on the CD not based on a color, is actually the third movement of a composition called “The Life Mosaic.” It was composed by four musicians in The Fresh Cut Orchestra, a large ensemble co-led by Lawrence. He said that “Presence,” the movement he composed, is about adulthood and the hustle-bustle of the city.

Lawrence has been influenced and inspired by the Philadelphia jazz sound associated with the band members who played with John Coltrane and Art Blakey and also by the Philadelphia R&B and soul scenes.

“There’s a soulfulness that’s part of the people of Philly,” he said. “I lived in Philly more than any other place. It’s a real city that can give people who are from here or who have lived here an edge to their personalities, which I personally like. It’s a city where there are a lot of personal connections between people. Whenever I’m here, I run into someone I know. People are friendly and there’s a lot of feeling in the city. That comes through in the music.

Lawrence grew up in a little town in the middle of the woods in the Pine Barrens. The elementary school he attended in Burlington County had a summer band program.

“They put you in a room with a bunch of instruments and you got to pick which one you wanted,” he said. “I picked the trumpet. I was 11. Before that I messed around on the piano and sang in the choir. More than anything, I was competitive. I didn’t play a lot of sports so I got really serious about music.”

When his family moved to Cranberry, NJ, he ended up at Princeton High School.

“They have a serious musical program,” he said. “I went to school with Damien Chazelle, who directed the movie ‘Whiplash.’ That movie was based on our program director. He was training us to be professional musicians. By the time I was out of there, I wanted to come to Philly because there was a lot of great music here.”

Lawrence graduated from the University of the Arts, and then moved to Harlem where he lived for five years. There he met his wife Ola and they moved to Poland, her homeland, for a year. Then they returned to Philly for six years and last year moved back to New York.

Lawrence is on faculty at the University of the Arts, Drexel University and the Kimmel Center's Creative Music Program. He has three solo albums under his name and two with the Fresh Cut Orchestra. He performs regularly with pianist Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band, saxophonist Caleb Curtis, bassist Anthony Tidd’s PACT, the George Gee Swing Orchestra, saxophonist Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, guitarist Matt Davis’ Aerial Photograph, drummer Francois Zayas, and singers Laurin Talese and Venissa Santi. He has also recorded as a sideman with Erykah Badu and Boyz II Men.

Lawrence practices yoga every morning. He explained that playing the trumpet requires a lot of control over different parts of the body.

“It’s a wind instrument so it’s really important to understand how much air you have in your body and how much your system can take,” he said. “Yoga is all about the breath. It helps me get that side of my playing together and it helps with focus as well. I spend my days practicing music so when I perform I turn off the rest of my mind and just let the music happen.

“When you come to see and hear us at Pastorius Park, we’re going to take you someplace where you’re going to laugh and also think about some things. At the end of the show, you’ll come talk to us. We’ll have a cool conversation. Sometimes I say it’s like I’ve invited you into my house and we’re going to sit and have a talk for a little bit.”

For more information about Josh Lawrence and to listen to his music, go to http://joshlawrencejazz.com/index.html.

Pastorius Park is two blocks west of Germantown Avenue at the corner of Millman Street and Hartwell Lane. Rain venue is the lower auditorium at SCHA Cherokee Campus. More information about the concert series is at www.chestnuthill.org or call 215-248-8810.