US-American jazz tenor saxophonist, born 11 October 1956 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA. Doug Lawrence comes from a musical family. His father and two brothers were professional musicians[1] and both his sisters played. His mother was a dancer. Lawrence spent over 20 years in New York City, during which time he worked with Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, and Roy Eldridge among others. Lawrence has also recorded with many prominent jazz musicians such as Buck Clayton, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Wild Bill Davis, Hank Jones, Mel Lewis, and George Cables as well as recording four albums as a leader - Soul Carnival, High Heel Sneakers, Big Band Swing and Street Wise. Lawrence served in the West Point Band's Jazz Knights in the early 1980's as the lead tenor saxophonist.

Lawrence has been a featured performer at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Village Vanguard, the Walt Disney Concert Hall and at international concert halls and jazz festivals including the Sydney Opera House, the Moscow International House of Music, the Blue Note Tokyo, Telluride Jazz Celebration and the North Sea Jazz Festival. Lawrence is currently the featured tenor soloist with the Count Basie Orchestra and also works with the drummer Jimmy Cobb and leads his own band called the Doug Lawrence Organic Trio or Quartet. Lawrence frequently appears as guest clinician and artist-in-residence at universities and jazz camps around the world.

Doug Lawrence and his wife and daughter currently live in New Mexico.