Prince Lasha (1929–2008): Pioneering Jazz Musician

Prince Lasha in Rolling Stone magazine

Prince Lasha—born William B. Lawsha on September 10, 1929, in Fort Worth, Texas—was one of jazz’s great sonic explorers, a restless genius of the alto saxophone, flute, and clarinet whose work bridged Texas blues, bebop, free jazz, and the avant-garde revolutions of the 1960s. His musical lineage ran deep: his grandfather played clarinet and his uncle performed with Count Basie’s orchestra. 

Lasha bought his first saxophone as a teenager with his friend Ornette Coleman—both boys working as waiters at the Texas Hotel, saving their paychecks until they could afford the instruments that would change the course of their lives. At Terrell High School he studied under the influential band director William A. Fowler and performed in the school orchestra. He also co-founded a student combo, the Tympani Five, with classmates Coleman and Charles Moffett, a group that foreshadowed the free-jazz movement they would later help shape.

Early on, Lasha’s talent was unmistakable. He became a versatile multi-instrumentalist, jamming around Fort Worth with a young David “Fathead” Newman, James Clay, and Leroy Cooper. He gave saxophone lessons to a teenage King Curtis and absorbed advanced harmonic ideas as an understudy to the legendary Buster Smith. After touring the South, he headed to New York in the mid-1950s, performing in clubs and sitting in with major jazz figures. A brief return to Texas was followed by a move to California, where he met the brilliant and equally fiery saxophonist Sonny Simmons. Their first album, The Cry! (1962), announced them as bold new voices in jazz.

Lasha soon entered the orbit of jazz royalty. In 1963 he played on Elvin Jones’s Illumination! and contributed to Eric Dolphy’s celebrated recording Iron Man, all while leading his own group at Birdland. His circle widened to include McCoy Tyner, with whom he collaborated during his fertile New York years. Lasha’s sound—light, airy, rhythmically elastic—made him one of the distinctive flute voices of the era, and his alto work had the sharp, angular phrasing associated with Coleman, though unmistakably his own.

In the mid-1960s Lasha moved to London, setting up shop in Kensington and recording the avant-garde landmark Firebirds (1967) with Charles Moffett, Bobby Hutcherson, and Simmons. Returning to the U.S., he remained fiercely independent, releasing live recordings from the Monterey and Berkeley jazz festivals on his own Birdseye label in the 1970s. His collaborative spirit continued into the 1980s, when he enlisted Herbie Hancock for the album Inside Story, further cementing his ties with jazz’s modern masters.

By the 1990s, Prince Lasha had settled in Oakland, where he quietly built a successful real-estate business but never strayed far from his musical roots. He performed at select concerts, including an annual tribute to Eric Dolphy at Yoshi’s, and in 2005 recorded The Mystery of Prince Lasha with the Odean Pope Trio. He died in Oakland on December 12, 2008 and is buried in a city that had embraced his creativity and where he left his last artistic mark.

Prince Lasha’s career defies easy categorization. He stood at the crossroads of multiple jazz revolutions, played alongside some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, and insisted on artistic independence long before it became common. 

Sources: Texas State Historical Association; princelawsha.com; Iron Man and Illumination! album documentation; interviews and public discographies; Wikipedia; Rolling Stone magazine; Oakland Tribune