After signing to the Project 3 label, in 1968 Lawrence issued his first headlining session, You're Gonna Hear from Me, soon followed by Look Toward a Dream, a collaboration with guitarist Larry Coryell. After releasing the 1970 Embryo label effort Inside an Hour Glass, which featured his experimental project Children of All Ages, Lawrence joined Willie Bobo's Latin Jazz Band, then in 1974 shocked purists by signing on with the jazz-rock combo Blood, Sweat Tears. Further confounding critics, in 1978 he embarked on a 14-month world tour behind Liza Minnelli. Upon returning stateside, Lawrence formed a new group, the fusion-oriented Treasure Island, releasing an eponymous LP on Doctor Jazz in 1979. After 1981's Renewal, he again receded to the background, touring with both Louis Bellson's Big Band and Elvin Jones; he also composed a symphony, Red, White and Blues, later premiered by the Williamsburg, VA, symphony orchestra in a performance that featured Lawrence alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Julius Hemphill as featured soloists.
Lawrence's teaching career began during the mid-'70s with artist-in-residence jobs in Kentucky and Kansas, and in 1986 he mothballed his recording and touring pursuits to create and co-found the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, an educational center pairing master musicians with young up-and-comers. The New School pioneered an idiosyncratic educational approach that replaced traditional classroom settings with the stages of Manhattan nightclubs. Over a decade, the list of Lawrence's students would grow to include Roy Hargrove, Brad Mehldau, Larry Goldings, John Popper, Peter Bernstein, and Jay Rodriguez. In 1997 he relocated to Israel, establishing the International Center for Creative Music in a building offered by the Jerusalem Department of Culture. Lawrence welcomed students of both Jewish and Arab backgrounds, insisting he was simply bringing like-minded musicians together regardless of their origins. In the same spirit, he often played alongside Israeli and Palestinian musicians at the West Bank club the Flamingo, and also operated his own nightspot, Arnie's Jazz Underground. After a long bout with lung and liver cancer, Lawrence died in Jerusalem on April 22, 2005. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi