Jarrod Lawson did pretty well for himself in Portland.

A native of California’s Bay Area, he moved there when he was 8, started playing the piano at the age of 12, settled into the Rose City’s fertile music scene in his 20s and released his first two albums — 2014’s self-titled effort and 2020’s “Be the Change” — while living there.

People noticed. In two reviews, the website Soul Tracks called his debut “one of the most musically provocative albums of the year,” and Americana Highways praised “Be the Change” thusly: “The artist traverses flawlessly from smooth jazz to hypnotic soul all while delivering some of the best ‘message’ music” released in the turbulent year of 2020.

But over the past few years, Lawson — who plays the Jazz at the Oxford series in Bend this weekend — felt like he was stagnating, and that he was ready for something new.

Move to Nashville

“(The West Coast) is more laid back, and that really appeals to a certain part of me. But I’m also not getting any younger, and I’m trying to get some things done in this life,” he said. “I wanted to put myself in a situation where I’m a little more uncomfortable and that forces me to push myself and make shit happen.”

So early last year, Lawson moved to Music City, U.S.A. — Nashville, where industry connections are plentiful, opportunities abound and musicians have to hustle or be left behind.

“It’s hard to even nail people down here to do something because they are so busy,” he said. “Everyone’s getting after it out here and that’s the kind of energy I wanted to be around.”

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Of course, hustle doesn’t help much if you don’t have the songs, but that isn’t an issue for Lawson. A prodigious pianist and vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer, his music is a seamless blend of sumptuous soul, supple funk, jazzy chord progressions, gorgeous harmonies and memorable melodies.

Under the influences

He draws influence from like-minded greats such as D’Angelo, Donnie Hathaway, Erykah Badu and especially Stevie Wonder, but also jazz pianists like Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson, reggae icon Bob Marley and Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim.

“My father was a musician and I grew up around a lot of instruments. There were always things around for me to tinker with,” he said. “He also had a pretty decent record collection and I remember at some point rifling through, finding Stevie Wonder’s ‘Songs in the Key of Life’ and just sitting there listening to every song over and over and over.”

He continued: “Even as a child, I was completely enthralled with Stevie. It wasn’t long after that that I kind of realized, ‘What he’s doing is what I want to do with music.’”

And where many kids soak in their parents’ music and then join teenaged punk bands, Lawson has been on more or less that path ever since. He’s now working hard on his third full-length album — with a push from his record label, just as he hoped for when he moved to Nashville — and plans to release it later this year.

“I think the combination of finding those Stevie records and finding my way to the piano really pushed me in a certain direction, and my dad encouraged me to cultivate the relationship between my voice and the piano,” he said. “It was uncomfortable in the beginning, but he always said, ‘You’ve got a special instrument inside and someday you’re going to figure out how to tap into that.’”

If You Go

Who: Jarrod Lawson

When: 6 p.m. Friday, 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, doors open 30 minutes before showtime

Where: Oxford Hotel, 10 NW Minnesota Ave., Bend

Cost: $73

Contact: jazzattheoxford.com