Rittenhouse Romp. Old City Blues. Where You At? Those are three of the ten titles on the track list of Josh Lawrence’s new album, as he lists it on his own Bandcamp page, and when I read them I heard a trumpeter walking around the city he grew up in, naming corners out loud. The album is called Philly Twisted. It is a love letter in the shape of a record, and on Friday, November 20, it gets a release night that I think says as much about Philadelphia as the music does. The room is a church on South 13th Street, a family gets in for fifteen dollars, and the band is paid properly. I’m writing this for Philadelphia Jazz Experience because that combination is the festival I keep dreaming about, shrunk down to one Friday evening at seven o’clock.

The record: a toast to the hometown

Posi-Tone Records describes Philly Twisted as a new album that pays homage to Lawrence’s hometown’s rich jazz legacy while infusing it with fresh creativity, and it marks his eighth release for the label. The release date on the label’s page is September 18, 2026. The credits on Lawrence’s Bandcamp page say it was recorded on September 8, 2025, at Acoustic Recording in Brooklyn. A Philadelphia album, recorded in New York, and still finding its way home. I like that detail more than I expected to.

The track list is where the city shows up. The ten titles run from the opening Philly Twisted through Rittenhouse Romp, Ola’s Bolero, East of the Village and Black Lillies to Old City Blues and the closing Where You At? Two of them are neighborhood names I could walk to from a coffee shop. A third is a question every Philadelphian has asked a friend on a phone.

There is repertoire in there too. Jean-Michel Schlosser’s review for Couleurs Jazz says the session alternates Lawrence’s own compositions with pieces by Thelonious Monk, Hank Mobley and Horace Silver. That is a trumpeter placing his own writing beside three composers who shaped how a jazz tune is built. It tells me he is asking where he sits in the tradition, which is a better question than whether he fits a trend.

The trumpeter

Lawrence is Philadelphia raised, and the label’s artist page lists four Grammy nominations, including work with Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band. I will leave it at that, because the album and the room are the story. When a four time nominee chooses to release a record about his hometown in a neighborhood church instead of a nightclub with a cover charge, that choice carries information. It says who he wants in the audience.

The room, and who is paying the band

The show is presented by Artcinia. The organizer’s own Eventbrite listing describes the evening as Lawrence presenting music from his new 2026 Posi-Tone release, a toast to Philadelphia during our 250th national celebration, and it names the vibe: blues, bebop and ballads. The details I care about are the ones a family needs. Friday, November 20, 2026. Music from 7 to 8 PM, doors at 6, all ages. The Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany, 330 S. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Philly Jazz Scene’s event page lists the prices as $10 for adults, $15 for families and $5 for students and seniors. Those are face prices. The Eventbrite checkout adds fees on top, so the total you see there will be a little higher than the numbers I just gave you. I’d rather you hear that from me than discover it at the last click.

I want to spend the most time on Artcinia, because I think it is the part of this story that most people have not met. Its What We Do page says it launched its flagship initiative, Music in YOUR Neighborhood, in June 2021, in partnership with Partners for Sacred Places. The same page reports the results: over 20 neighborhoods reached, over 350 professional musicians fairly compensated, and nearly 9,000 people welcomed to live performance. Even the name is a small lesson. Artcinia’s FAQ on the Eventbrite listing explains that it combines the word art with the Italian word for neighborhood, vicinia.

Why a church and a family price matter to me

Philadelphia does not have a shortage of musicians. We have the players, the history and the stages. The open question is where the next audience hears them first. A nightclub at ten o’clock is a wonderful place to hear jazz, and I say that as someone who loves them. It is also a place a ten year old cannot go, and a place a family on a tight budget thinks twice about.

Artcinia’s answer, as I read it, is to put the music in places a neighborhood already trusts. Houses of worship, as its partnership with Partners for Sacred Places suggests, and other community spaces, at prices a household can say yes to, with the artists paid fairly. That last part matters as much as the first two. A cheap ticket funded by a musician working for exposure is not a model. A cheap ticket, a good room and a paid band is.

Here is what I find myself wondering. If 350 musicians have been paid across 20 neighborhoods in a bit over five years, what does the next five years look like at the same pace of growth? I do not know, and I will not pretend to. I do know the numbers came from the organization itself, and I’d love to see them checked against a few more years of data. For now they tell me the idea works at the scale of a block, and a block is where audiences start.

What I would do with a Friday

If you are free on November 20, here is my plan. Get there for the 6 PM doors, because a church has good acoustics and I’d like a seat near the front. Bring somebody who thinks jazz is for other people. Bring a kid if you have one; the $15 family price exists for exactly that, and the music ends at 8, so everyone is home for bed.

And if you cannot make it, listen to the record. Start with the title track, then Rittenhouse Romp, and notice how it feels to hear a street you know in a trumpet line. Philadelphia Jazz Experience exists to grow jazz appreciation, and this is the easiest version of that work I can imagine: a record, a room, a price that welcomes people and a band that gets paid.

The poster for this post uses a portrait of Lawrence in front of City Hall’s tower by photographer Ola Baldych, taken in 2026. If you share this, tag the people who made it possible: Lawrence, Artcinia, Posi-Tone and Ola.

Sources and references

Posi-Tone Records, Philly Twisted album page. Eighth release for the label, homage to Philadelphia, release date September 18, 2026.
Posi-Tone Records, Josh Lawrence artist page. Four Grammy nominations including work with Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band.
Josh Lawrence on Bandcamp, Philly Twisted. Track list and recording credits (September 8, 2025, Acoustic Recording, Brooklyn).
Couleurs Jazz, review by Jean-Michel Schlosser. Lawrence’s compositions alongside Monk, Mobley and Silver.
Eventbrite, Josh Lawrence Quintet, organizer Artcinia. Date, time, venue, the show description and the meaning of the Artcinia name.
Philly Jazz Scene, event page. Face prices: $10, $15 families, $5 students and seniors.
Artcinia, What We Do. Music in YOUR Neighborhood launched June 2021 with Partners for Sacred Places; over 20 neighborhoods, over 350 musicians, nearly 9,000 people.

About the Author

Harry Hayman is a Philadelphia-based entrepreneur, music producer, and cultural advocate. Through his work with the Feed Philly Coalition, he explores and documents the creative, culinary, and civic life of a city he believes is one of the most inspired places in America.