Over the course
of some three decades, visionary bassist-producer Bill Laswell has been one of
the most prolific and restlessly creative forces in contemporary music. A sound
conceptualist who has always been a step ahead of the curve, he has put his
inimitable stamp on nearly 3,000 recording projects by such artists as Mick
Jagger, Yoko Ono, Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, Bootsy Collins, Nine
Inch Nails, Motorhead, Peter Gabriel, Blur, The Ramones, George Clinton,
Pharaoh Sanders, The Dalai Lama, Matisyahu, Angelique Kidjo, DJ Krush,
RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ, Sting, The Last Poets, Afrika Bambaataa, Julian Schnabel, Whitney
Houston, Manu Dibango, Fela Kuti and most notably Herbie Hancock, who
collaborated with Laswell for the pivotal 1983 smash-hit single
"Rock-It" which introduced scratching to the mainstream, inspired a
generation of turntablists and gave the great jazz pianist instant street
credibility among the burgeoning hip-hop cognoscenti.
Bill Laswell
has helped in generating several innovative recording labels such as Celluloid,
Subharmonic, Black Arc, and Innerhythmic. Along with Chris Blackwell, founder
of Island Records (Bob Marley and U2), he established the AXIOM label in 1989.
M.O.D. Technologies, his most recent imprint is releasing projects by Method Of
Defiance, Lee "Scratch" Perry, PRAXIS, Garrison Hawk with Sly &
Robbie, Bernie Worrell, The Process (with Red Hot Chili Peppers' drummer Chad Smith
and pianist Jon Baptiste) and progressive/futuristic music from Ethiopia
(CDs/DVDs).
As a player,
Laswell’s bass lines resound with rare authority on groundbreaking projects by
Tabla Beat Science (with Zakir Hussain and Ustad Sultan Khan), his avant-funk
band Material, the apocalyptic assault of Last Exit (with Sonny Sharrock), his
progressive dub effected Method of Defiance and the throbbingly intense power
trios, Massacre (with Fred Frith and Charles Hayward), Painkiller (with John
Zorn and Mick Harris), Praxis (with Buckethead and Brain), Blixt (with Raoul
Bjorkenheim and Morgan Agren) and the latest (2014) Bladerunner (with John
Zorna and Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo).
Laswell’s
artistic reach has consistently extended to the continent of Africa, creating
ground-breaking, evolutionary snd controversial recording projects in Morocco,
Senegal, Mali, Gambia and most recently, Ethiopia where he has established a
base for developing new as well as legendary artists, just as he did in the
South Bronx some 30 years ago.
A veteran of
300 plus journeys to Japan, where he has worked with everyone from The Gagaku
Orchestra (Japan's ancient music, only played for emperors for 1500 years), to
avant-jazz, rock, hip-hop and DJ culture. An eternal musical renegade, Bill
Laswell has always played by his own rules.
Magic calls
itself the other method for controlling matter and knowing space.
No comments:
Post a Comment