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Bill Laswell | |
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 Laswell in 2006 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | William Otis Laswell (1955-02-12)February 12, 1955 (age 70) Salem, Illinois, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1978–present |
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| Website | billlaswell |
William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, andrecord label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws fromfunk,world music,jazz,dub, andambient styles.
According to music critic Chris Brazier, "Laswell's pet concept is 'collision music' which involves bringing together musicians from wildly divergent but complementary spheres and seeing what comes out."[2] Although his bands may be credited under the same name and often feature the same roster of musicians, the styles and themes explored on different albums can vary dramatically.Material began as a noisydance music band, but later albums concentrated onhip hop, jazz, orspoken word readings byWilliam S. Burroughs. Most versions of the bandPraxis have included guitaristBuckethead, but they have explored different permutations on albums.
Bill Laswell was born on February 12, 1955, inSalem, Illinois. As a child, his family relocated frequently, exposing Laswell to a variety of regional cultural and musical traditions.[citation needed]
In his teenage years, Laswell's family settled in Michigan, an area with a very diverse music scene during the 1960s and 1970s,[3] from Motown Records to Detroit's burgeoning punk and rock scenes. During this time, Laswell taught himself to play bass guitar, and he developed an unconventional approach to the instrument, experimenting with its potential to create soundscapes rather than merely support rhythm.[4]
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Laswell began performing as a bass guitarist in R&B and funk bands in Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and saw shows that combined genres, such as Iggy and the Stooges,MC5, andFunkadelic. He was also influenced by jazz musiciansJohn Coltrane,Albert Ayler, andMiles Davis. The live jazz performances and experimental rock acts of Michigan's music festivals encouraged him towards musical experimentation and non-traditional forms, including African drumming, Indian ragas, and Middle Eastern maqams. Later, he was intrigued by the avant-garde and experimental movements of the 1970s, including the works of minimalist composers and electronic music pioneers. He began experimenting with effects pedals and early recording techniques, reflecting his broader artistic philosophy, that music could transcend traditional categorizations and connect diverse cultural and sonic elements.[5]
In the late 1970s Laswell moved to New York City,[1] immersing himself in the thriving New York music scene. He moved into producerGiorgio Gomelsky's loft and became part of a group of musicians that would become the first version ofMaterial. Material became the backing band forDaevid Allen[1] and New York Gong. The band consisted of Laswell, keyboardistMichael Beinhorn, and drummerFred Maher. They were usually supplemented by guitarists Cliff Cultreri orRobert Quine.
He worked withBrian Eno,Fred Frith,John Zorn,Daniel Ponce,Ginger Baker,Peter Brötzmann,Kip Hanrahan,Sonny Sharrock, and with musicians inno wave, a genre that combined avant-garde jazz, funk, and punk.[6]
He started a recording studio withMartin Bisi and met Jean Karakos, owner ofCelluloid Records. Under the Material name Laswell became thede facto house producer for Celluloid until the label was sold in the 1980s. He recorded music that was experimental, combining jazz, funk, pop, and R&B, by musicians such asWhitney Houston,Sonny Sharrock,Archie Shepp,Henry Threadgill, and the bandMassacre with Fred Frith and Fred Maher. His association with Celluloid allowed his first forays into "collision music", a term coined by British writer Chris May ofBlack Music & Jazz Review. Recordings withthe Golden Palominos and production on albums byShango,Toure Kunda, andFela Kuti appeared on the label. Celluloid was an early advocate of hip hop, producing albums byFab 5 Freddy,GrandMixer D.ST,Phase II, andAfrika Bambaataa. The albumWorld Destruction pairedJohn Lydon with Afrika Bambaataa years beforeAerosmith andRun–D.M.C. collaborated on their rock/hip hop version of "Walk This Way".
In 1982, Laswell releasedBaselines, his solo debut album. A year later, he had a breakthrough with "Rockit", a song he co-wrote and produced for Herbie Hancock's albumFuture Shock.[1] He played bass guitar and co-wrote other songs on the album, leading to collaborations with Hancock through the 2000s. He won a Grammy Award for producing Hancock's next album,Sound-System.[1]
He became a member of the bandLast Exit in 1986 with Peter Brötzmann, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Sonny Sharrock.[1] Aside from one album that Laswell cobbled together in the studio, the band was primarily a live one, showing up at gigs with no rehearsal. The first time the four members played together was on stage at their first show.
Laswell produced albums forSly and Robbie,Mick Jagger,PiL,Motörhead,Ramones,Stevie Salas,Iggy Pop andYoko Ono. Many of these bands afforded Laswell the opportunity to hire his working crew to record on more mainstream records. Sly and Robbie hired him to produce their 1985 albumLanguage Barrier and 1987 albumRhythm Killers.[7]
Island Records founderChris Blackwell gave him the opportunity to begin a label in 1990, thus formingAxiom Records. In addition to albums by Material that included Sly and Robbie, William S. Burroughs,Bootsy Collins,Wayne Shorter, andBernie Worrell, he produced and released albums by Ginger Baker, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Sonny Sharrock,Nicky Skopelitis, andUmar Bin Hassan. Among the studio-based albums, Palestinianoud and violinistSimon Shaheen recorded an album of music by Egyptian composerMohammed Abdel Wahab. Gambian virtuosoFoday Musa Suso recorded an album of dance music with his electricKora, and Turkishsaz master Talip Oezkan recorded an album.Master Musicians of Jajouka recorded an album in their village in theRif Mountains. There were albums byMandinka andFulani recorded at Suso's family compound inGambia andGnawa music from Morocco.
Praxis featured guitarist Buckethead onTransmutation with Bootsy Collins,Bryan Mantia, Bernie Worrell, andAfrika Baby Bam from theJungle Brothers. The album blended funk grooves and heavy metal riffs with many tracks co-written by Laswell.
Funkcronomicon included previously released tracks by Praxis and Skopelitis and tracks with members of Parliament-Funkadelic.George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, and the last recordings ofEddie Hazel are featured prominently. The album includesDXT, Umar Bin Hassan,Abiodun Oyewole and Torture.[8] Laswell remixed the Axiom catalog forAxiom Ambient, blending seemingly disparate tracks, releasing some of the music forSample Material – International Free Zone, asample library for other musicians to use as material.[9][10]
Subharmonic, conceived by Laswell and ex-Celluloid A&R Robert Soares, though not owned by Laswell, was essentially a vehicle for his projects, most in the ambient or ambient-dub categories. The label licensed a few releases from European labels for American re-release, notablyPsychonavigation withPete Namlook andCymatic Scan withTetsu Inoue from Pete Namlook's FAX label;Somnific Flux withMick Harris andCold Summer byLull from the Sentrax label. Other collaborators includedJonah Sharp andTerre Thaemlitz. The label also released albums byPainkiller, Praxis, and Divination, an ambient dub project by Laswell. A sub-label called Strata was created with five releases in a more experimental dub/noise/ambient vein. Each of these releases (Death Cube K, Cypher 7, Azonic, and two under his alias Automaton) came in a black jewel case with the name of the project and album title printed on the front.
Three other short-lived labels were created after the demise of the Subharmonic deal. One was Meta, which was intended to be aspoken word label. The second label, Submeta, managed four releases before folding. Meta, formed with Janet Rienstra, released only one album,Baptism of Solitude with novelistPaul Bowles reading excerpts from his work over soundscapes by Laswell. Meta would appear periodically, distributed by other labels, over the next few years until it returned as a spiritual/yogic label run by Rienstra. The third label, Black Arc, was an associated label ofRykodisc focusing on "Black Rock, Cyber Funk, and Future Blues", according to a sampler. The label featured members of P-Funk on most of the albums and released albums by Bootsy Collins (under the name "Zillatron"), Bernie Worrell (Japan-only), Mutiny (Jerome Brailey), andBilly Bass.
Charged (1999) byEraldo Bernocchi andToshinori Kondo was released by Laswell's label Innerythmic. After a brief inactive period, the label restarted in 2001, releasing over the next few years and albums by Nicky Skopelitis,Raoul Björkenheim,James Blood Ulmer,Shin Terai, and Gonervill. Innerhythmic also released a live recording by Praxis and reissued Black Arc albums from the 1990, including Zillatron, The Last Poets'Holy Terror andBuddy Miles'Hell & Back.[11]
Laswell moved his studio toWest Orange, New Jersey and called it Orange Music Sound Studios. Under Palm's umbrella, though, four albums and a DVD set were released, including a studio album and a live 2-disc set fromTabla Beat Science centered ontabla virtuosoZakir Hussain, son ofAlla Rakha. The album includedKarsh Kale,Trilok Gurtu,Ustad Sultan Khan, andTalvin Singh. This group has performed in the US, Lebanon, and Japan. Laswell, Kale, Kahn, and Hussain are usually supplemented by other musicians, which have includedGigi,DJ Disk,Serj Tankian fromSystem of a Down,Sussan Deyhim, and artist Petulia Mattioli. In 2001Life Space Death was released with Japanese trumpeterToshinori Kondo, Laswell on bass, guitar, and keyboards, and words by the14th Dalai Lama[12] interviewed by Kondo.[13] At the request of Blackwell, Laswell oversaw the debut album by Ethiopian singer Gigi for Palm Pictures with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Laswell. He also producedAbyssinia Infinite andGold & Wax.
Laswell has stated in interviews that he met with Miles Davis a number of times and discussed working together, but busy schedules kept them from arranging such a recording before Davis' death.[14] He remixed some of Davis's music forPanthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis 1969-1974 (Axiom, 1998).[6]
He signed a contract withSanctuary Records that led to the creation of his label Nagual. He worked in thedrum and bass genre, starting withBrutal Calling credited to Bill Laswell vs.Submerged that was released byAvant in 2004. He and Submerged worked together again onThe Only Way to Go is Down (2006) under the name Method of Defiance. After this album, they assembled producers in drum and bass to collaborate with musicians from jazz.Evol Intent, Future Prophecies, and SPL recorded with Buckethead, Herbie Hancock, andPharoah Sanders.[1]
In 2010, Laswell created the labelM.O.D. Technologies. Its first releases were the albumsJahbulon andIncunabula by Method of Defiance andMesgana Ethiopia by Material with Gigi.[1]
Along with live dates around the world withMassacre,Material, Method of Defiance, andPainkiller, Laswell travels to Japan every year for recordings and live dates, including with Tokyo Rotation.[15]
In November 2018, he performed inDave Douglas Uplift band at theLondon Jazz Festival.[16]
Laswell suffered health problems which required hospitalization in December 2022 and prolonged recovery,[17] which jeopardized his tenure of Orange Music Studio.[18]
Prior to his health problems, Laswell had been recording as a duo with his long-time on-and-off collaborator Zorn releasing the albumsThe Cleansing (2022) andMemoria (2023) on Zorn'sTzadik label.[19][20] His first venture during his health recovery in 2024 was a new Painkiller album titledSamsara with Zorn and original drummer Harris, although for this recording Harris' percussion is electronic and Zorn then Laswell layered up their contributions separately.[21][22]
Laswell works frequently with a small group of collaborators. These include bassistsJah Wobble,Josh Werner,Jonas Hellborg, andBootsy Collins; guitaristsBuckethead and Nicky Skopelitis; keyboardistsJeff Bova and Bernie Worrell; percussionistsAïyb Dieng and Karsh Kale, and musicians from P-Funk.Robert Musso has been his chief engineer for over twenty years. Oz Fritz has occasionally filled the role. Fritz is usually Laswell's live engineer of choice, known for live mixing technique. Remixes have been done forSting,Nine Inch Nails,Almamegretta,Scorn,Ozzy Osbourne, andTori Amos. He has done much work for John Zorn'sTzadik Records.
In 2005, Laswell was invited to appear on the PBS seriesSoundstage. The show featured musicians he has played with over the years, including members of Praxis and Tabla Beat Science, Pharoah Sanders, Foday Musa Suso, Bootsy Collins, andCatfish Collins.
Laswell worked with Sony Creative Software on a box set loop library calledThe Bill Laswell Collection.[23]
He has also worked withEraldo Bernocchi andMick Harris on a project calledEquations of Eternity, which is an ambient music project started in 1995 by Eraldo. Since its members live in separate parts of the world (Mick Harris in England; Bill Laswell in the US; and Eraldo Bernocchi in Italy), the project has been predominantly studio-based, with its members recording music in their respective countries.
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