Sarah McLawler with The Richard Otto Trio

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Hammond B-3 organist Sarah McLawler was raised in the church with gospel music. She studied organ at an Indiana Conservatory. Influenced heavily by the music of the big bands, McLawler used to sneak into clubs in Indianapolis to hear Lucky Millinder's big band. She ended up going on the road with the bandleader, and later formed an ahead-of-its-time all-woman band, the Syn-Co-Ettes. They spent some time as a house band at Chicago's Savoy Club. After meeting Richard Otto, a classical violinist who liked to play jazz, at a residency at a Brooklyn c...