b. Ronald Laws, 3rd October 1950, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
Ronnie Laws formed his own group The Lightmen while still at high school.
After his college days he moved to Los Angeles where in 1970 he became the sax player with Earth Wind & Fire.
His playing is featured on their album 'Last Days In Time'.
He also recorded with Doug and Jean Carne and Hugh Masekela during this time.
In 1976, he launched a solo career with Blue Note Records and producer Wayne Henderson, making immediate impact on the UK jazz funk scene with his debut album 'Pressure Sensitive', including the classic instrumental 'Always There' (later recorded by numerous other artists including Wilille Bobo, Side Effect, Jeff Lorber, Wood Brass & Steel, Incognito and the James Taylor Quartet).
For the United Artists label, he consolidated his popularity with 'Fever' (1976), 'Friends & Strangers' (1977), 'Flame' (1978) and 'Every Generation' (1980), slowly but surely introducing more of his own vocals on his songs.
Vocals were predominant on his next two albums, 'Solid Ground' (Liberty Records, 1981) including 'Stay Awake', and 'Mr Nice Guy' (Capitol Records, 1982).
A final Capitol album 'Classic Masters' (1984) was a compilation featuring two new vocal songs, 'City Girl' and '(You Are) Paradise'.
Switching to CBS, he continued to pursue his vocal career on 'Mirror Town' (1986) and 'All Day Rhythm' (1987) before switching to the independent ATA label and resuming his instrumental sax style on CD-only albums 'True Spirit' (1990) and 'Identity' (1990).
His nineties releases include an album dedicated to The Isley Brothers entitled 'Portrait of the Isley Brothers, 'Harvest For The World' (1998). He had, by that time returned to the Blue Note Stable.
Ronnie has also recorded with Alphonse Mouzon ('The Sky Is The Limit'), Ramsey Lewis ('Tequila Mockingbird'), Arthur Adams ('Home Brew'), Howard Hewett ('This Time'), Jeff Lorber, Sister Sledge ('Once In Your Life'), David Sea and numerous other artists.
His brother is Hubert Laws while his sisters are Eloise Laws (for whom he wrote and produced) and Debra Laws (for whom he co-produced 'Very Special', writing the leading song 'On My Own').
Albums:
Pressure Sensitive (Blue Note Records 1975)
Fever (Blue Note Records 1976)
Friends and Strangers (EMI Records 1977)
Flame (United Artists Records 1979)
Every Generation (Liberty / United Artists Records 1980)
Solid Ground (Liberty Records 1981)
Mr.Nice Guy (Liberty / United Artists Records 1982)
Classic Masters (Liberty / United Artists Records 1984)
Mirror Town (Columbia Records 1986)
All Day Rhythm (Columbia Records 1987)
True Spirit (Par Records 1989)
Identity (ARD Records 1990)
Deep Soul (Par Records 1992)
Brotherhood (Intuition Records 1995)
Pressure (A.R.G. Records 1995)
Natural Laws (Right Stuff Records 1995)
Tribute to Legendary Eddie Harris (Blue Note Records 1996)
Portrait of the Isley Brothers: Harvest for... (Blue Note Records 1998)
Dream A Little (HDH Records 2000)
Ronnie Laws Live (Scepterstien Records 2001)
Everlasting (HDH Records 2004)
