Hubert Laws -

Hubert Laws (born Nov. 10, 1939) is an American flutist from Houston. He is the eldest of kin in the musical Laws family, which also includes saxophonist Ronnie Laws and vocalists Eloise and Debra Laws.

Background

Hubert Laws Jr. was born on November 10, 1939, in Houston, Texas. His mother, Miola Luverta Laws, played piano for a local Baptist choir, while a maternal grandfather played harmonica. Several younger siblings later entered professional music; Ronnie became a saxophonist, while Eloise, Debra, and Johnnie became singers.

Laws first studied piano before taking up mellophone and alto saxophone. He began flute at Phillis Wheatley High School after the school orchestra needed a player for the flute passage in the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini. Band director Sammy Harris introduced Laws to jazz, and Houston Symphony flutist Clement Barone gave him private flute lessons.

Laws entered the music department at Texas Southern University and played with drummer Stix Hooper, pianist Joe Sample, saxophonist Wilton Felder, trombonist Wayne Henderson, and bassist Henry Wilson in the Modern Jazz Sextet. He left Texas Southern with the group for Los Angeles and briefly attended Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences. Laws won a tuition scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music in 1960, where Julius Baker taught him flute. He supported his studies with New York club work, beginning with an organ trio at Sugar Ray’s Lounge in Harlem. Laws later played Saturday dances at Hotel Theresa with Chick Corea among his pianists and completed a bachelor of music degree at Juilliard in 1964.

Arranger Tom McIntosh brought Laws into the June 1963 sessions for James Moody’s Great Day, which Laws later identified as his first recording work. Local engagements with Hugo Dickens introduced Laws to pianist Rodgers Grant, who connected him with percussionist Mongo Santamaría. Laws joined Santamaría in 1963 on tenor saxophone, flute, and piccolo. Philadelphia disc jockey Joel Dorn heard Laws with Santamaría and selected him after Atlantic jazz producer Nesuhi Ertegun offered Dorn a production project with an unsigned artist. Dorn signed Laws to Atlantic, and Laws recorded the material for The Laws of Jazz on April 2 and April 22, 1964, at Atlantic Studios in New York.

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