by Chad Campbell, senior producer
I first found Chad Lawson’s music in the director’s office at Morning Edition in 2000 when I was responsible for picking all the interstitial songs heard on the program. It’s kind of difficult to choose 15 unique pieces of music to fit new stories every morning at 4am so some artists got used more than others. Lawson noticed and got in touch with me and we have stayed in touch off and on ever since. I thought it was time to shine a little light on all of the musicians working “in the shadows” of the music industry so we invited Lawson to come to DC for a performance chat with Bob. I was always more fond of the trio sound so he brought with him percussionist Jim Brock and bassist Mike Holstein to play their special brand of improvisational music. Lawson has also released several fine solo CDs, including The Piano as well as a festive holiday album titled Solo Piano Christmas. And of course there are the CDs he recorded with his old trio for Summit Records, The Oz Sessions and Unforeseen.
This video gives you some idea of what Chad Lawson and Jim Brock’s improvisations look like.
Here’s a video of Chad Lawson performing Preludium in C Major. I’m told this is the take you hear on his CD The Piano.
And here’s Bob with Chad and the boys on their way out to the parking lot.
