Hubert Laws

Hubert Laws (born November 10, 1939) is an American flutist and saxophonist with a career spanning over 40 years in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Alongside Herbie Mann, Laws is probably the most recognized and respected jazz flutist. Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop, and rhythm-and-blues genres, moving effortlessly from one repertory to another.

Biography
Hubert Laws, Jr. was born November 10, 1939, in the Studewood section of Houston, Texas, the second of eight children to Hubert Laws, Sr. and Miola Luverta Donahue. Many of his siblings also entered the music industry, including saxophonist Ronnie and vocalists Eloise, Debra and Johnnie Laws. He began playing flute in high school after volunteering to substitute for the school orchestra's regular flutist. He became adept at jazz improvisation by playing in the Houston-area jazz group the Swingsters, which eventually evolved into the Modern Jazz Sextet, the Night Hawks, and The Crusaders. At age 15, was a member of the early Jazz Crusaders while in Texas (1954–1960), and he also played classical music during those years.

Winning a scholarship to New York's Juilliard School of Music in 1960, he studied music both in the classroom and with master flutist Julius Baker, and played with both the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (member) and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, 1969-72. In this period his renditions of classical compositions by Gabriel Fauré, Stravinsky, Debussy, and Bach on the 1971 CTI recording Rite of Spring—with a string section and such jazz stalwarts as Airto Moreira, Jack DeJohnette, Bob James, and Ron Carter—earned him an audience of classical music aficionados. He would return to this genre in 1976 with a recording of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.

While at Juillard, Laws played flute during the evenings with several acts, including Mongo Santamaría, 1963–67 and in 1964 began recording as a bandleader for the Atlantic label, and he released the albums The Laws of Jazz, Flute By-Laws, and Laws Cause. He guested on albums by Ashford and Simpson, Chet Baker, and George Benson. He also recorded with younger brother Ronnie Laws album The Laws in the early 1970s. He also played flute on Gil Scott-Heron's 1971 album Pieces of a Man, which featured the jazz poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." During the 1970s he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet. He can also be heard playing tenor saxophone on some records from the 1970s.

In the 1990s Laws resumed his career, playing on the 1991 Spirituals in Concert recording by opera singers Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman. His albums on the Music Masters label—My Time Will Come in 1990 and, more particularly, Storm Then Calm in 1994—are regarded by critics as a return to the form he exhibited on his early 1970s albums. He also recorded a tribute album to jazz pianist and pop-music vocalist Nat King Cole, Hubert Laws Remembers the Unforgettable Nat King Cole, which received critical accolades. Among the many artists he has played and recorded with are Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Nancy Wilson, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Lena Horne, Leonard Bernstein, James Moody, Jaco Pastorius, Sérgio Mendes, Bob James, Carly Simon, George Benson, Clark Terry, Stevie Wonder, J. J. Johnson, and The Rascals. In 1998, Laws recorded with Morcheeba for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease.

The 2006 video Hubert Laws Live 30-year Video Retrospective, available only at hubertlaws.com, includes "Red Hot & Cool" with Nancy Wilson, Performance in Brazil, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Appearance, The 1975 Downbeat Reader's Poll Awards, Performance in Japan, and Performance in Germany.

Awards and honors
In June 2010, Laws received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts in the field of jazz.

Laws is a recipient of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award.

As sideman
With Chet Baker With George Benson With Kenny Burrell With Ron Carter With Chick Corea With Paul Desmond With Charles Earland With Astrud Gilberto With Grant Green With Johnny Hammond With Freddie Hubbard With Bobby Hutcherson With Solomon Ilori With Jackie and Roy With Milt Jackson With Quincy Jones With Harold Mabern With Herbie Mann With Gary McFarland With James Moody With Airto Moreira With Alphonse Mouzon With Milton Nascimento With Jaco Pastorius With Houston Person With Mongo Santamaria With Lalo Schifrin With Don Sebesky With Melvin Sparks With Gábor Szabó With Bobby Timmons With Stanley Turrentine With McCoy Tyner With Walter Wanderley With Randy Weston
 * She Was Good to Me (1972)
 * Studio Trieste (1982)
 * Tell It Like It Is (A&M/CTI, 1969)
 * The Other Side of Abbey Road (CTI, 1969)
 * White Rabbit (CTI, 1972)
 * Good King Bad (CTI, 1975)
 * In Concert-Carnegie Hall (CTI, 1975)
 * Pacific Fire (CTI, 1983)
 * God Bless the Child (CTI, 1971)
 * Uptown Conversation (1970)
 * Blues Farm (CTI, 1973)
 * Spanish Blue (CTI, 1974)
 * Anything Goes (Kudu, 1975)
 * The Complete "Is" Sessions (1969)
 * Tap Step (1980)
 * From the Hot Afternoon (A&M/CTI, 1969)
 * Intensity (Prestige, 1972)
 * Gilberto with Turrentine with Stanley Turrentine (CTI, 1971)
 * The Main Attraction (CTI, 1976)
 * The Prophet (Kudu, 1972)
 * First Light (CTI, 1971)
 * Skydive (CTI, 1972)
 * Highway One (Columbia, 1978)
 * Conception: The Gift of Love (Columbia, 1979)
 * African High Life (Blue Note, 1964)
 * Time & Love (CTI, 1972)
 * A Wilder Alias (CTI, 1973)
 * Milt Jackson and the Hip String Quartet (Verve, 1968)
 * Goodbye (CTI, 1973)
 * Walking in Space (A&M, 1969)
 * Gula Matari (A&M, 1970)
 * Smackwater Jack (A&M, 1971)
 * Body Heat (A&M, 1974)
 * Mellow Madness (A&M, 1975)
 * Sounds...and Stuff Like That!! (A&M, 1978)
 * Greasy Kid Stuff! (Prestige, 1970)
 * Glory of Love (CTI, 1967)
 * America the Beautiful, An Account of its Disappearance (1968)
 * Today {1969)
 * Great Day (Argo, 1963)
 * Free (CTI, 1972)
 * Morning Sun (1981)
 * Courage (A&M/CTI, 1969)
 * Jaco Pastorius (Epic, 1976)
 * Broken Windows, Empty Hallways (Prestige, 1972)
 * Mongomania (Colombia, 1967)
 * Black Widow (CTI, 1976)
 * Giant Box (CTI, 1973)
 * Akilah! (Prestige, 1972)
 * Mizrab (CTI, 1972)
 * Got to Get It! (Milestone, 1967)
 * If I Could (1993)
 * Together (1978)
 * La Leyenda de La Hora (1981)
 * When It Was Done (A&M/CTI, 1968)
 * Moondreams (A&M/CTI, 1969)
 * Blue Moses (CTI, 1972)