March 7, 2019
Ronnie Laws has always been an R&B-oriented saxophonist miscast in the jazz world, starting with his early association with the rapidly declining Blue Note label. His debut album (reissued on CD) has a couple of decent melodies (the opening “Always There” is the most memorable), some soulful tenor and soprano playing by the leader in a style heavily influenced by Grover Washington, Jr., and vocals on only one of the eight selections; Laws’s attempts to make it as a singer were still in the future. However this obviously commercial effort (every song fades out before it hits the five-minute mark) can only be recommended in comparison to Ronnie Laws’s later more inferior recordings. ~ Scott Yanow
