Lawrence App's Bio

Lawrence App grew up in a musical family in the Washington DC area. He studied piano and voice throughout high school, but was self-taught on guitar. He played 12 string acoustic guitar and wrote over a hundred original songs before he was 18.

He was a member of the local band Brew which played original music as well as covers. (shown in the photo to the left)

In 1974, he began touring and performing with several Jazz, Latin, and show groups.

Lawrence relocated to Florida in 1980 and that same year co-founded the pop-Caribbean group Windjammer, a band he still performs with today. During the ‘80s, Lawrence made several regionally successful recordings with Windjammer and appeared on MTV Spring Break in Daytona productions. His three albums, Going Down to the Beach (1986), Jammin’ and Groovin’(1987), and Reggae in the U.S.A.(1989), sold over 10,000 copies.

Beside being a featured concert act in their own right, Lawrence and Windjammer shared the bill with many top acts including The Average White Band, the Wailers, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. (see color photo below in 1990 opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers)

While most of the 90s were spent on higher education, Lawrence continued to perform regularly, although his focus began to shift away from Windjammer and towards work as a jazz sideman or performing his own eclectic songs. By now he was an accomplished vocalist, guitarist, and bass player and through formal study, expanded his ability to read and apprehend advanced theoretical structures. He also began to develop other musical directions, particularly in percussion. He worked for several years as an accompanist on hand drums for modern dance and also started performing on the steel drums in earnest.

Since 1997, Lawrence’s main commercial outlet has been solo work in the Orlando market and other high-end resorts in the Southeast. Freedom from his responsibilities as a full-time bandleader has allowed him to concentrate on writing, recording and performing his own material.

He has produced five CDs in the last six years covering styles from jazz and world music to death-metal. Although Lawrence is proficient on ten different instruments, guitar is still his first love.

His main inspiration comes from people like John Scofield, Charlie Hunter, and Bill Frissell. He also listens to Papa Wemba, Gilberto Gil, and Kurt Elling for vocal inspiration. With the completion of Dark Into Light, Lawrence recorded a video with his quartet. See Laree's YouTube Channel.

The Dream of Separation was released in 2007. Several of the songs are viewable on YouTube as well.