Chad Lawson Essentials

Moving seamlessly between classical, jazz, new age and electronic music gestures on his releases, Chad Lawson has maintained a musical career full of twists and turns—always in service of finding inroads to new and potent musical moods. The pianist and composer—born in 1975 outside Charlotte, North Carolina—garnered attention at the turn of the 2000s for his work with his jazz unit the Chad Lawson Trio, known for interpreting unorthodox repertoire from film soundtracks and alt-rock hits. In 2009, he entered a new phase in his career with his first solo album, Set On a Hill, consisting of new-age-adjacent solo piano compositions. In the ensuing years, his balmy classical explorations would lead to reinterpretations of common-practice period giants like Chopin, Bach and Beethoven as well as fully improvised, post-minimalist explorations and pop covers (see his version of FINNEAS’ “when the party’s over”).