When Lawrence Fields recently returned to St. Louis to teach an artist residency for Jazz St. Louis, it was an alumnus who returned as the teaching artist. Although Fields, who released his first album as a leader (To the surfaceRhythm ‘N’ Flow Records) created his own curriculum at Jazz St. Louis earlier this year as a precocious high school student.

When Fields saw pianist Cyrus Chestnut perform at a Jazz St. Louis educational concert at a local school, Chestnut invited the excited youngsters to attend his concert at Jazz at the Bistro. “That was the first time I’d ever been to a jazz club, and it completely changed my life,” Fields said. “I begged my parents to let me go back. He was there four nights – I was there all four nights.”

Fields visited the jazz club whenever he could. While still a child – his precocity as a student had allowed him to skip middle school; he started college at 16 – he became a regular at the club thanks to then-general manager Gene Dobbs Bradford and artistic director Bob Bennett. “I had the opportunity to see all these world-class shows basically for free,” Fields said.

Fields’ parents provided him with the tools he needed. His father, a doctor, got him a keyboard; his mother, a stockbroker, bought him books on playing the piano. The young man eventually worked his way from the crowd to the stage at Jazz at the Bistro, playing piano behind up-and-coming local artists like Keyon Harrold.

“St. Louis is just the right size to be inclusive,” Fields said. “If you’re good at your instrument, there are a lot of opportunities open to you. That was a big help to me when I was growing up.”

Fields found the friends he had been looking for since his precocity separated him from his peers. Students who skip grades often have social problems. Music spared Fields the worst of that. “When you play music, you meet other musicians, and it’s like a little community,” Fields said.

Fields’ mother was responsible for his next breakthrough at his next school. She introduced him to the son of a friend, Daniel R. Brown (former St. Louis Americans reporter, now judge and lawyer). The mothers knew that their sons were both studying at Washington University in St. Louis and playing jazz. Brown, a drummer, introduced Fields to his first real jazz band. “Danny introduced me to this whole other world,” Fields said.

Fields loved jazz so much that he couldn’t stand computer science anymore. “Playing jazz was so interesting, so stimulating,” he said. “And so social too, right? Which writing code on your own with a computer wasn’t.” He was precocious again, getting a full-time job as a software developer at 18 and dropping out of college when most students his age were just starting out.

He decided to study music at a school known for its music programs. His father drove him to Chicago to audition for the Berklee College of Music in Boston, which offered a national audition tour. Fields was accepted on a half-scholarship, which was soon upgraded to a full scholarship.

Fields decided to focus on studio production rather than performing or composing, but he absorbed many different musical influences. “In the practice rooms, one person plays country music, someone else plays gospel, someone does blues, someone does hip-hop,” Fields said. “So we’ve got a blues singer and a gospel drummer and a jazz bassist and a prog-rock guitarist, and we’ll see what comes out of it.”

Berklee also offered the elite school’s most valuable intangible asset: professional networking. “There was a constant turnover of great musicians coming through Berklee,” Fields said. “I met some of the people who helped me get my first gigs.”

St. Louis also helped him find his way to Boston. Fields became integrated into the local scene, playing with icons like Willie Akins. At an Akins performance at Spruill’s, an audience member told Fields to check out Wally’s, a local club, when he got to Boston. Fields wasn’t old enough to get into Wally’s, but the bouncer there told him to go to the back and listen on the fire escape. Fields was blown away.

When the musicians came out after the show, they were only a little older than he was. “I’d never heard people that age play like that,” Fields said, “so I got to know them.” He worked his way up from the fire escape to the stage. He played at Wally’s with Warren Wolf, a vibraphonist and drummer who introduced Fields to saxophonist Tim Warfield, who introduced Fields to Nicholas Peyton – who gave Fields his first overseas touring gig.

His value as a sideman helped Fields pay the bills in his adopted home of New York – and meet the people he needed to release his own music. He owes his record deal with Germany-based Rhythm ‘N’ Flow Records to a European tour with Joe Lovano, who had taught Fields at Berklee.

The touring experience as a sideman, the label connection, the production skills he learned at Berklee and his development as a composer culminated in To the surface“I was touring and playing with other artists and gathering my own musical ideas,” Fields said. “How do I take all these different influences and combine them into something that has a unified sound? I didn’t want the album to give people musical whiplash.”

A preferred sideman who now chooses his own sidemen, Fields enlisted bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Corey Fonville. “A lot of the sound of the record is thanks to them,” Fields said. “They did a fantastic job, so I was able to focus on being creative while recording.” Fields produced his debut at Brooklyn’s Big Orange Sheep, which features a 9-foot Fazioli grand piano. “This studio is filled with people who are extremely talented but also very relaxed and very nice,” Fields said.

When Fields performed his debut album as a bandleader at Jazz at the Bistro in February, a lifelong dream came true. By the time he returned to Jazz St. Louis to teach and perform in April, his music had already evolved. “The pieces have new sections or elements that weren’t there before,” Fields said. “All of the pieces are evolving.”

Fields is also evolving from being a sought-after sideman to a bandleader doing his own thing. “That’s what makes this time so fascinating, because I didn’t set up the structure of a bandleader, did I?” Fields says. “The artists I played with had managers and booking agents, but now I’m on my own. It can be intimidating, and there are a lot of talented people who just can’t handle it. But I said to myself: Listen: This is my challenge in life.”