Don Laws is a Toronto jazz vocalist, trombonist and composer who seeks continuous, spontaneous creation. Lyrical improvisation is the hallmark of his style: he treats the voice the way a horn player treats a solo, in the line of Eddie Jefferson and King Pleasure, with the ballad depth of Johnny Hartman and Nat King Cole, the swing and storytelling of Frank Sinatra and Joe Williams, and the forward motion of Al Jarreau. As he puts it: improvisation is life itself, performed at high speed — and composing is improvisation slowed down.
He came to the voice through the horn. Beginning in Toronto’s salsa bands, he studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music and then in Humber College’s jazz program — orchestration and arranging with Ron Collier, improvisation with Pat LaBarbera — followed by vocal jazz studies at York University and a vocal scholarship to the Banff Centre’s summer jazz workshop, working with Hugh Fraser, Mark Ledford and Kevin Eubanks.
His voice and trombone appear on Juno Award-winning recordings: the Neufeld-Occhipinti Jazz Orchestra’s celebrated debut and Ramiro’s Latin Orchestra’s The Gathering — and on the Juno-nominated NOJO albums FireWater and You Are Here featuring Don Byron. A founding member of Hampton Avenue, the Jazz Report Award-winning a cappella jazz ensemble led by Debbie Fleming, he sings on its beloved All I Want For Christmas. He has shared stages with Jane Bunnett and Sheila Jordan, sung backup for Elaine Overholt, opened for Holly Cole, performed from the Toronto and Montreal jazz festivals to the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy — and an impromptu duet with Bobby McFerrin remains a formative moment: two voices listening to each other, and an audience cheering for the listening itself.
Don is currently in the studio with producer Eddie Bullen (Thunder Dome Sounds) recording Can We Play? — an album of original songs and reimagined standards that carries the male jazz vocal tradition forward. He pursues this art because it spreads joy, wonder and freedom: “I see rhythms in the clouds and hear the sound of light refracting in a raindrop.”
Contact: mrdon@alienartist.com
Don Laws 