The Sam Lazar discography

Sam Lazar

Organist Sam Lazar from St. Louis is a mysterious figure about whom not very much is known. His (very small) fame among jazz fans is based on the fact that guitarist Grant Green’s first recordings were done in groups led by Lazar.

Lazar, who was born around 1933, vanished from the scene at sometime in the early sixties and nobody seems to really know what became of him (and I am 99 percent sure that the – unsourced – stories about his later life in Lazar’s Wikipedia entry are bogus (so I do not link to that entry) – or are they?

Anyway, since I think it’s worth to listen to Lazar also if Green is not part of the proceedings, I decided to make an illustrated discography of Sam Lazar’s recorded works. Some of the entrys are linked to audio files or youtube videos – just in case you want to listen to Lazar while reading about his works.

Enjoy!

This entry was posted on August 10, 2014 at 1:53 pm and is filed under 33 rpm, 45 rpm, Cawthron, Discography, Grant Green, Sam Lazar with tags Bob Graf, Cawthron, Chauncey Williams, George Eskridge, Grant Green, jazz, Joe Diorio, Miller Brisker, Phillip Thomas, Phillip Wilson, Sam Lazar, St. Louis, Uptown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “The Sam Lazar discography”

Klaus Kilian Says:
September 29, 2014 at 3:14 pm

Hi Crownpropeller,
Thanks for the Lazar entry & disco. I have collected his LPs over the years, but I never found the Cawthron single, unfortunately. At least I can hear it now, thanks to you. Regarding the unissued title “Blues” that Bruyninckx lists as having been issued on the Willie Dixon LP in the Blues Roots series: It’s not on there. I have the LP. Intrigued by the discography entry, I contacted Manfred Miller, who compiled the series for German Teldec, and he confirmed that there are no other pressings/editions of that album with this track, and he doesn’t recall it ever having been considered for the Dixon compilation. So it’s a mystery how it got listed as such in the discography!
Greetings,

Klaus

Reply
- crownpropeller Says:
  September 29, 2014 at 4:30 pm
  
  Thanks, Klaus. I’ll add your information soon. P.S.
  
  The Cawthron 45 appears on ebay about every other months – and it’s not exorbitantly expensive.
  
  Reply
Duane Freeman Says:
January 22, 2016 at 7:26 am

I saw the “bogus” information you mentioned on Sam Lazar’s wikipedia page, and after doing some research I was able to learn that it was just internet trolling. The information in question has been removed, and the page is now safe to link to.

Reply

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