The Lawrence Trio, consisting of guitarist Lawrence Ku, bassist Fred Grenade and drummer Nicholas McBride, released the latest album Clarity.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Ku's early childhood dreams of becoming a rock star gradually shifted toward jazz and composition as he pursued music degrees in San Diego and Boston.

In 1997, Ku came to Beijing to learn Chinese, where he soon made friends with local jazz musicians, such as bassist Huang Yong, pianist Xia Jia and saxophonist Liu Yuan."The jazz scene in the capital then was small but burgeoning. I can still remember riding a bicycle from the western part of the city to the eastern side of the city to play in jam sessions with my friends every weekend at the Beijing CD Cafe. It was so much fun back then, we were all performing and learning as we went," Ku recalls.

He moved to Shanghai in 2005 and launched another band, The Red Groove Project. The band's debut album, titled Flow,released in 2014, won three nominations at the established Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan that year: Best Instrumental Album, Best Composition and Best Producer. In 2016, the band released its second album, Proper Up!, which also garnered a Golden Melody nomination for Best Instrumental Album. Ku also travels quite a bit touring with pop stars, such as Hong Kong singer-actress Karen Mok, Chinese American singer-songwriter Shunza, A-Lin, Li Rong Hao, and Yuan Ya Wei.