BIOGRAPHY
Ranked as one of the “50 Best Acoustic Guitarists of All Time” by Guitar Player Magazine.
“His classical tone is gorgeous, his technique is impeccable. His subtle genre blending is compelling.”
~ Guitar Player Magazine
“It’s not often that a Latin jazz guitarist generates millions of views on YouTube with short instrumental pieces, but Lawson Rollins
is used to defying expectations”
~ Guitar World Magazine
"The sound is impeccable, the compositions dynamic, and the technique dazzling."
~ Acoustic Guitar Magazine
“Lawson Rollins is a guitarist that is functioning at the highest level of his craft. He is a guitarist that has the chops to play almost anything, but seems to choose taste over everything….Lawson Rollins is a world class player and composer....plain and simple.”
Billboard #1charting world music/contemporary jazz guitarist and composer Lawson Rollins is ranked as one of the “50 Best Acoustic Guitarists of All Time” by Guitar Player Magazine, the world’s leading guitar publication for over 50 years.
Over the past 25 years Lawson’s 13 solo albums and 4 albums with his prior group Young & Rollins have landed in the Billboard Top 10 World Music Chart and spawned a growing list of Billboard Top 30 contemporary jazz radio hits including the 2024 #1 Billboard charting song “After Twilight.”
Acoustic Guitar Magazine describes his playing as 'impeccable' and 'dazzling' while Guitar Player writes, "Lawson Rollins is a bona fide star...The key to Rollins' mass appeal is his signature artistic balance between classically influenced compositional refinement, infectious exotic rhythms, and the unbridled intensity of full-on shred."
Lawson’s viral video hits like “The Fire Cadenza”, “Santa Ana Wind” and "Locomotion" have attracted millions of viewers including over 10 million views alone on YouTube. Guitar Player Magazine describes the videos as “Nylon string lightning!” and states: “Seeing Lawson Rollins rip arpeggios and scales using the classical “picado” fingerstyle technique is a mesmerizing experience worth watching again and again, and sharing with friends. Rollins is a star on YouTube, and he continues to gain international prominence blending various Latin styles into his own amalgamation.”
In his globally-inspired music, Lawson incorporates the rhythmic drive of rumba, salsa, bossa nova, and samba with cross-genre instrumentation performed by an internationally renowned cast of musicians. "All music has a hybrid quality," Lawson believes. "Thousands of years of travel, trade and communication between cultures created new forms of musical expression. The Spanish guitar embodies this with its ties to the Arab oud, the Persian tar, even the sitar, so weaving those strands together seems natural to me."
His albums feature numerous collaborations with artists the world over, including Grammy Award winners and nominees like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Charlie Bisharat (of Shadowfax), Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Mads Tolling, Kayhan Kalhor (of the Silk Road Ensemble) and Horacio Hernandez, as well as Billboard #1 charting contemporary jazz masters like 3rd Force and Praful. An ever growing cast of eclectic, notable artists continues to expand his world-fusion sound, with musicians such as Idan Raichel, Buckethead, William Aura (of 3rd Force), and Shahin Shahida (of Shahin & Sepehr) contributing to the mix.
As a testament to his enduring appeal on radio he was asked to serve as "Celebrity Guest DJ" on Sirius-XM Radio - the archived show is available to listen to here.
More about Lawson Rollins...
Lawson picked up the classical guitar at age 15 after hearing the recordings of Spanish guitar legend Andres Segovia. Though he began his studies in the classical genre, he quickly developed his own style, a combination of salsa, Latin jazz, blues, samba, bossa nova, and classical music. "While obsessively studying classical guitar in my teens, I discovered Latin jazz through some of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie's Latin infused collaborations. Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan led me to bossa nova; Miles Davis' jazz interpretation of Rodrigo’s classical “Concierto de Aranjuez” opened my eyes to Spanish tinged improvisation. Duke Ellington's world-jazz album The Far East Suite was also a revelation that led me away from purely classical guitar music and towards a world music fusion sound in my compositions." Lawson's genre-blending playing was marked by a distinctively sparkling technical proficiency, grounded in an uncommonly dexterous classical finger style approach.
After graduating with an English degree from Duke University and earning a graduate degree from the London School of Economics, Lawson moved to Washington, D.C. and formed the genre-busting Latin fusion group Young & Rollins with guitarist Daniel Young. Their hit debut album SALSA FLAMENCA immediately landed on the Billboard Top 25 Chart for its genre in the year 2000. They toured the world, performing at major music festivals and venues like the Sydney Opera House, and made three more records - SEVILLA (2001), ESPERANZA (2005) and MOSAIC (2006) - before Rollins left the group to explore new musical horizons. He moved to San Francisco and created his first solo effort, INFINITA, an album that touched on all the music he was interested in. It added Arab, Caribbean, Persian, classical North Indian and other world music colors to the mix. "I envisioned a multi-instrumental, kaleidoscopic sound that would give me a chance to explore a diverse array of musical styles from around the globe, far beyond the salsa-rumba fusion that was primary to the Young & Rollins palette of sound."
THE ALBUMS:
INFINITA (2008): Lawson’s debut solo album was made with the production assistance of Shahin Shahida of the Persian-American duo Shahin & Sepehr. It showcases an impressive cast, including Azerbaijani kamancheh virtuoso Imamyar Hassanov; Afghani vocalist Humayun Khan; Grammy winning violin player Charlie Bisharat; bassist Randy Tico; Persian percussion master Pejman Hadadi; drummer Dave Bryant; iconic Brazilian singer Flora Purim; and legendary percussionist Airto Moreira. The album was released in 2008 to universal rave reviews and placed three singles - the Brazilian flavored "Cafe Jobim," "In Motion" and the title track - on major jazz and radio airplay charts. The title track “Infinita” landed on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Top 30 chart in August of 2008. Lawson's goal for the album was to create a globally inspired, cross-genre sound that would give the other players plenty of freedom to shine while at the same time melding together into a cohesive whole. The recording amply matched his vision.
ESPIRITO (2010) expanded the geographical and musical range of Lawson's debut. The album was composed as a suite, with thirteen interlocking compositions that ranged freely through the folkloric roots of world music. Its wide-ranging palette spanned continents and cultures without ever losing its bedrock groove or playful sense of adventure. Lawson reassembled many of the players from the INFINITA sessions, including Shahida, Purim, Airto, Bryant, Bisharat and Tico. He added Iranian kamancheh master Kayhan Kalhor, Cuban drummer Horacio Hernandez, Moroccan ghanoon player Hicham El Anmari, trumpeter Jeff Elliot, cellist Cameron Stone and vocalist Diana Booker from the world/jazz/hip-hop group Eyedentity, who performs on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Top 30 radio hit "Moonlight Samba." It was recorded partially at Skywalker Sound, the state of the art Marin county studio owned by George Lucas. It showcased a wider spectrum of sound, rich with Lawson's guitar overtones and a warm bed of ambient sound.
ELEVATION (2011) marked an expressive high point for Lawson, as both a composer and performer, breaking new ground with an eclectic cast of musicians. Always in search of unique sounds and new collaborators, Lawson enlisted producer Shahin Shahida to record some of the top Persian musicians on location in Iran, while associate producer William Aura took recording equipment to Kathmandu to capture Nepali flute master Ruben Kumar Shrestha and other Nepalese players. Once again, Lawson confounded expectations by enlisting avant-garde electric guitar legend Buckethead to add some rock flourishes to the Latin/Indian waltz "Slow Ascent" and the Afro-Cuban pulse of "Ghosts of Alcazar." Other guest artists on the album include Iranian santur virtuoso Pejman Eckhtiari, sitarist Nasir Syed and, most unlikely, the pedal steel guitar of Jim Hoke, featured on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Top 30 radio hit "Daybreak.". Like ESPIRITO, the record unfolds more like a symphony than a collection of songs, ebbing and flowing through soundscapes that are alternately dense and expansive, touching on free jazz, world music and Lawson's indefinable melodic sense.
FULL CIRCLE (2013) entered the Top 10 of the Billboard World Music Chart shortly after its release. The song “Flight” also landed on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Top 30. The album lives up to its title, with 12 tightly focused tracks that bring Lawson's guitar work up front. The stripped down sound is produced by a small band of long time associates: Grammy winning violinist Charlie Bisharat; bassist Randy Tico; percussionist Dave Bryant; cellist Cameron Stone and saxophonist/flutist Richard Hardy. The album is also the first to feature Lawson's work on electric guitar, keyboards and drum programming and offers insight into his creative process, which usually begins alone in the studio with a multi-track device to capture his initial inspiration. "My goal is always a piece that can stand alone as guitar music," Lawson says, "with melodies and rhythms that invite other players to share in the passion of the moment. FULL CIRCLE is a return to my roots in a sense; the sound that is centered and grounded in the instrument I know best - the nylon string Spanish guitar."
TRAVELER (2015) hit the Top 20 iTunes World Music Chart in the first week of its release and spawned the America's Music Chart radio hit "Berlin Bossa." "Traveler" won 1st Place in the USA Songwriting Competition and also three Gold Medals in the Global Music Awards for Instrumentalist, Album, and Top 10 Albums of the Year. The album takes listeners on a global musical journey. Bridging countries, cultures, and continents, the music features Lawson's distinctive guitar-work backed by an eclectic, all-star ensemble. The expansive arc of the album reaches from the traditions of the Old World to the pulse of the modern metropolis with a boldly diverse, genre-defying mix of melody, rhythm, and improvisation. Featuring 2 time Grammy winner Mads Tolling, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy members Scotty Morris, Joshua Levy and Karl Hunter, and Grammy winner Charlie Bisharat.
INFINITE CHILL (THE REMIX SESSIONS) (2015) - Lawson's first remix collection, featuring 10 classic world music hits taken from his solo albums, remixed and reimagined with a modern aesthetic, incorporating elements of electronica/chill-out/down-tempo into the world music fusion of the original songs. Featuring new guitar performances from Lawson, remixing from Billboard chart ranked Persian-American musician/producer Shahin Shahida, and an all-star cast of musicians including legendary Brazilian chanteuse Flora Purim. The track "Cafe Paris (chill remix)" was the #1 most added song at contemporary jazz radio in its debut week, while the album as a whole was ranked as the #18 most played album of the year in 2016 by the SmoothJazz.com radio chart monitor. The album also hit the CMJ Radio Chart and achieved #1 on the Amazon.com Hot New Release charts.
3 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT (2017) - 12 original songs that capture the urgency of the moment, the exhilaration of the speed of sound, and the poignancy of the remains of the day. Featuring the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Top 30 and MediaBase Chart radio hit "Island Time". The album reached the Top 20 iTunes World Music chart and the Top 10 Amazon Hot New Release chart. Guitar Player Magazine writes: "The classically trained maestro, renowned for seamlessly blending various Latin styles...incorporates new plucking techniques to play aptly timed flourishes at supersonic speeds that will make your head spin." Full Interview here.
AIRWAVES: THE GREATEST HITS (2018) - An 18 track collection of Lawson's Billboard Top 30 radio favorites from over the past decade, plus 2 new tracks featuring Grammy winner Mads Tolling and Billboard #1 charting band 3rd Force. Featuring the brand new song "World of Wonder (featuring 3rd Force)", a Billboard Contemporary Jazz Top 30 radio chart hit. Also Top 5 on the major America's Music Chart.
DARK MATTER: MUSIC FOR FILM (2019) marks a bold departure for Lawson as he sets aside his main instrument - the nylon string Spanish guitar - and crafts a mysterious soundscape of lush steel string acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizers, violins, and flute that transcends conventional song structure in favor of free-form musical impressionism ripe with emotional intensity. The atmospheric instrumental music is designed to engender cinematic imaginings in the mind's eye of the Listener. Supporting Lawson's electric, acoustic and slide guitars are Grammy winning violinist Mads Tolling, acclaimed multi- instrumentalist Stephen Duros, and Native American flute master Guillermo Martinez. Multiple tracks from the album has garnered radio play on stations around the world, including Sirius-XM radio and Echoes/NPR, landing the album in the top 15 on the ZoneMusicReporter top 100 radio charts.
TRUE NORTH (2020) - a #1 CHART TOPPING ALBUM - The album explores the wide range of genres, emotions, and moods that have come to characterize the dynamic and adventurous musical journey Lawson has offered fans throughout the 20 years of his career. Featuring the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Top 30 radio hit “Bluewave Bossanova”
RISE (2021) - Featuring the #1 Billboard charting song “Free to Fly.” RISE was a top 10 seller on the ITUNES WORLD MUSIC ALBUM CHART. With the release of RISE, Lawson offers a bold collection of ten original songs that showcase his signature virtuoso guitar style and eclectic compositional flair for melody and rhythm. Each song finds Lawson rising to his peak abilities as a guitarist and composer. Lawson states, “This album was forged during the unprecedented difficulties the world has seen over the past year, but as the Latin motto “Ad Astra Per Aspera” proclaims, we can reach the stars through difficulty. It is in that spirit that this album was made."
HEARTWOOD (2023) - Featuring the contemporary jazz radio hit “Sunlight Bossa Nova”. With the release of "Heartwood" Lawson Rollins offers a melodically rich and rhythmically exhilarating set of songs that showcase his soulful connection to the guitar and his passion for unbridled six string acoustic artistry. Across a wide ranging musical tapestry Lawson draws from the spirit of the heartwood of the guitar - his chosen instrument - and incorporates the stimulating rhythmic drive of rumba, bossa nova, and samba with graceful melodic finesse and free-flowing improvisational flair.
INFINITE CHILL VOLUME 2 (2024) - the sequel to 2015’s Infinite Chill (the remix sessions) reunites Lawson with remixer/producer Shahin Shahida for a fresh collection of remixes of 10 of Lawson’s past hits. “After Twilight” from ‘Infinite Chill Vol. 2’ hit #1 on the Billboard top 30 contemporary jazz radio airplay chart, with major radio adds at Sirius-XM Watercolors channel, KUNV Las Vegas, WFSK Nashville, WNOZ New Orleans, and WJZA Atlanta. Also top 4 on the Mediabase, SmoothJazzNetwork, and SmoothJazz.com radio charts.
Visit Lawson’s page on Billboard for a list of all his radio charting songs
VIDEOS showcasing Lawson's finger-style technique have gone viral on the internet and attracted millions of viewers. "The videos were meant to be eye catching and entertaining to watch, but I thought they'd be of interest mostly to fans of highly technical guitar playing," says Lawson. "I never planned to put these short, improvisational pieces on an album; I just wanted to convey the feeling of one small certain aspect of my playing. I hope viewers of the 90 second 'Fire Cadenza' or 2 minute 'Santa Ana Wind' videos will move from the videos to something more complex and melodic from one of my actual albums, like the 7 minute track "The Diamond Path" from the Elevation album, which has flavors or India mixed with Afro Cuban rumba and showcases an eclectic cast of musicians from Nepal to California." Enjoy a free download of "The Diamond Path" here.
Not surprisingly, the videos struck a chord with viewers from around the world, both guitarists and non-guitarists alike. Guitar World Magazine aptly states: "It's not often that a Latin jazz guitarist generates millions of views on YouTube with short instrumental pieces, but Lawson Rollins is used to defying expectations."
