Terry Lawson

Terry started playing the alto sax in elementary school and switched to tenor in junior high school. He briefly studied with Dave Baker at Indiana University in early 1971. That same summer, he studied with Donald Byrd before the “Blackbyrds” got started. After that he played with the “Stylistics” and was their music director on their first trip to Europe.

From that point, Terry went on to play with Charlie Earland, Butch Cornell, the CAU marching, concert and jazz ensembles for two years and then freelanced around Atlanta, Ga. for years. He moved to Philadelphia in 1988 and played in the Frank Jackson, Felix Leach, Leon Mitchell, and Vernon Lewis big bands along with the Middy Middleton, Arthur Harper, Fred Simmons, Sam Reed, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and the late great Jymie Merritt ensembles for quite some time. From 2014-2016, he was a sub in the great “Sun-Ra Arkestra” and is currently a member of the Odean Pope Saxophone Choir.