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Prince Lawsha combines two passions in performance — jazz jams and the mango fruit. Sentinel photo by Shmuel Thaler

Jazz percussionist celebrates favorite fruit in the kitchen, and out

Santa Cruz musician Prince Lawsha is not afflicted with synesthesia, the bizarre brain-wiring condition which allows you to "hear" colors and "smell" noises. But if Lawsha’s idea catches on, he may trigger it in his audiences. The percussionist has just released a disc of seductively tropical soft jazz called "Sweet Mango," which he hopes may lead to a media version of synesthesia: a TV show that combines his two great passions, music and cooking. Lawsha (pronounced "la-SHAY") travels around the world as part of the entourage of jazz giant Max Roach and as a musician in his own right. He is talking with TV producers in France about hosting a cooking show featuring live music — or, if you prefer, a jazz jam with food demonstrations. Both the music and the cooking, he said, will be built around his passion, the mango. "When people listen to the music (on ‘Sweet Mango’)," he said, "I want to create for almost every song a flavor to suggest mango." The mango fever hit Lawsha last year while playing in Tahiti. He not only soaked up the sensuous rhythms of the tropics, but the way Tahitians used the mango as well. "The fruit is very beneficial in a lot of ways. In the islands, it’s a part of daily life." Lawsha became entranced by the way the locals were using the mango, in everything from sauces to relishes. When he got home, he played with some of the basic ideas, adding more garlic and chili to the salsa recipe he discovered in the islands. Lawsha has both music and food in his blood. His father was William B. "Prince" Lasha (who changed the spelling of the family name to make it easier to pronounce). The elder Prince was a noted sideman in the avant-garde free- jazz scene of the 1960s, playing with Eric Dolphy and Elvin Jones among others. But his mother drew him into the kitchen and, from an early age, he was apprenticing in the culinary arts. "I started working in restaurants when I was 9 years old in Fort Worth, Texas, where I grew up. I was just making crusts for deep-dish apple cobblers, peach cobblers, all kinds of pies and pot pies. I learned a lot of cooking technique from my mother, and as I grew, I started working in restaurants and playing music. It became a double profession for me." In the studio, the percussionist teamed up local sax man Paul Contos and French trumpeter Alain Brunet to create an album that sounds much like a mango smells: sweet, juicy, redolent of warm climates. Veteran percussionist Kenneth Nash also lent a hand as co-producer. The album, which is chock-full of Nash/Lawsha originals, ends with an ephemeral version of the world’s most famous spiritual, "Amazing Grace." Lawsha, who functions as Max Roach’s road manager, will be setting a heavy travel schedule this year again, both with Roach and with his band, particularly if French TV responds well to his idea. Wherever he goes, he has a mission in mind. "I’m always on the hunt for mango recipes." For more information on Prince Lawsha’s "Sweet Mango" and more recipes, visit www.princelawsha.com. Contact Wallace Baine at wbaine@santa-cruz.com.

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