Lawrence is an extremely able trumpeter and composer/arranger. He is an important sideman in Orrin Evans' Captain Black Big Band, as are most of the musicians on this date. Evans obviously talked to Posi-Tone producer Marc Free about him and this is the result. The idea behind the Color Theory includes exploring how colours interact and how people ‘see’ them in music. ‘Red’, for example, is a very restless up-tempo urban theme in 10/8 with images of police cars etc, while ‘Green’ is very much in Miles Davis mode from the Ahmad Jamal-influenced era. Three of the best tracks are ‘The Rip-off’, ‘The Conceptulizer’ (dedicated to Wayne Shorter) and ‘Purple (4 Prince)’. Color Theory also introduces one of the most interesting altoists for a long time in Caleb Curtis, who Orrin Evans uses on his own new guitar-featuring Smoke Sessions CD. At times, there's the kind of passion in his playing that recalls Cannonball Adderley, at others, he's much quieter and low-key, almost confidential in tone. But this is principally Lawrence's record. His solos, his originals and their arrangements are all exceptionally tasteful and melodic and he is well supported by Evans and the excellent Adam Faulk, as well as the sympathetic bass and drums team of Rast and Marshall. If you see it, try it.