The Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center

RONNIE LAWS & DOUG CARN –

Double Feature Concert & Live Album Recording. Presented by the CA Jazz and Blues Museum, Produced by THEKarenA and Tim Morganfield @ the iconic Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center on April 30th, International Jazz Day 2025!

The event will be hosted by WBGO on- air personality Pat Prescott, host of My Favorite Things.

These legendary artists come together again after decades, to perform and record a live album in an intimate setting. This event will be streamed live globally with an intimate in-person audience. Tickets are available for in-person and streaming.

RONNIE LAWS ~

A native of Houston, Texas, his family includes flutist brother, Hubert, vocalist sisters, Eloise and Debra; and saxophonist son Jaman. Laws taught himself to play alto saxophone, age of eleven. An eye injury sidelined early dreams of professional baseball, and his instrument became his all-consuming passion.

In 1970 he moved to Los Angeles and worked with legendary talents The Jazz Crusaders and Hugh Masekela. He played and recorded with Doug Carn who introduced Ronnie to Earth, Wind and Fire, where he played tenor and soprano sax before pursuing a solo career. Ronnie landed his first recording contract with Blue Note Records, resulting in the debut album Pressure Sensitive. Controversy erupted with jazz “purists” criticizing Laws’ inventive, nontraditional fusion style. Laws answered his critics by scoring unprecedented crossover success in R&B and pop in addition to jazz, and receiving multiple awards for originality in the process.

Laws is a proven natural at combining the exploratory heart of Jazz with the broader-reaching strains of Soul and Pop music. His first hit, “Always There” was one of the most popular, sax-driven, cross-over hits of the 70’s Jazz-Funk Fusion era. He ushered in the sensualization of the soprano sax with Quiet Storm gems such as “Grace”, “Karmen”, and “Just Love”. Pressure Sensitive, Fever, and Friends and Strangers (Blue Note 1978), the title track of his third album, all propelled to gold status.

DOUG CARN ~

A native New York City and raised in St. Augustine Florida, he emerged at the end of the ‘60s making his debut on record as perhaps the key member of the Black Jazz Records roster, releasing four albums for the label between 1971-75 that stand as all-time classics of Black Consciousness expressed through jazz. He is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and producer; much known for his organ and piano work. A key aspect of early success was the haunting and powerful vocal contributions of his then-wife Jean Carn, whose five-octave vocal range made for memorable renditions of classics like “Peace” (Horace Silver), “Little B’s Poem” (Bobby Hutcherson), “Blue And Green” (Miles Davis) and Doug’s own “Power And Glory.” The couple also contributed to Earth Wind and Fire’s first two albums.

Carn’s own luminous work on acoustic and electric piano on all these albums placed him firmly in the realm of contemporaries like Lonnie Liston Smith, Herbie Hancock and George Duke. His albums were elevated even further by the exquisite sideman work of a number of luminaries including Olu Dara (aka Nas Sr.), Charles Tolliver, Alphonse Mouzon and legendary Cannonball Adderley bassist Walter Booker.

Carn performed at Aretha Franklin’s Concert in 2018 in Detroit where he led Franklin’s band in a reading of her 1973 hit "Until You Come Back to Me."

In 2020, Carn teamed with producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalists Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. They co-wrote and cut 11 original tracks with a cast of studio players at Linear Labs Studios. It was issued as Doug Carn JID005 in December of 2020.