Lawson Rollins (born c. 1970) is an American guitarist and composer from North Carolina noted for his lightning-fast speed solos, virtuoso fingerstyle technique, and melodic compositional skills featured in his recordings. His music spans a wide range of genres but is generally classed as Latin Jazz and World Music, with elements of Samba, Bossanova, Middle Eastern music, Classical guitar, Flamenco and Shred guitar added to the mix.
He is best known for his compositions The Fire Cadenza, Santa Ana Wind and Moonlight Samba and his albums Infinita and Espirito which were both critically acclaimed by the jazz community. He has reached a wide audience on both radio and the internet. Video performances of The Fire Cadenza and Santa Ana Wind have been viewed millions of times on Youtube.[6] His songs Moonlight Samba, Infinita, and Havana Heat have proven popular on jazz radio stations and landed on the Billboard radio charts.
Influenced by Andres Segovia from his mid-teens, he developed an interest in Jazz, Flamenco, and improvisational Latin and Brazilian guitar styles in his early twenties. After graduating from Duke University he earned a graduate degree from the London School of Economics, then moved to Washington, D.C. in 1998 where he met guitarist Daniel Young (Dan Young) at a local flamenco shop and formed the Latin guitar fusion group Young & Rollins. They released several albums together, including Salsa Flamenca, which landed on the Billboard Chart in 2000, Sevilla (2001), Esperanza (2005) and Mosaic (2006) and played at many major venues such as the Kennedy Center and Sydney Opera House. Rollins was based in Washington until 2007 when he moved to San Francisco.
His three solo albums Infinita, Espirito, and Elevation, are characterized by an eclectic mix of Middle Eastern, Brazilian, and Arabic music fused with Spanish guitar and backed by an all-star cast of musicians from around the world including Brazilian singer Flora Purim, percussionist Airto Moreira, Cuban drummer Horacio Hernandez, Shahin Shahida of Shahin and Sepehr, Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor, Grammy-winning violinist Charlie Bisharat, and electric guitarist Buckethead, among others
