Artist Bio:
It's easy to take what Bill Laswell does for granted because the way he blends once disparate genres, from metal to reggae, hip-hop to free jazz, African to ambient, seems so effortless—and so commonplace now. Plus, the bassist and studio mastermind is also stunningly prolific: Albums he has produced or played on number into the low hundreds. But much of what we consider the norm now in world fusion was born of innovative collaborations that feature Laswell's contributions. He's the king of collage.
Born February 12, 1955, in Salem, Illinois, and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Laswell was a polyglot from the beginning. He listened to the funk and blues of James Brown and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Al Green and the Meters, the protopunk of the Stooges and the MC5, the psychedelic grooves of Funkadelic and the experimental jazz of John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Albert Ayler among many others.
He moved to New York City in 1978 and he fit right in with the burgeoning "no wave" scene. Laswell formed the avant-funk-punk band Material and began to gig around with people like David Byrne, Fred Frith, John Zorn and others. His big breakthrough came when he produced and cowrote Herbie Hanock's 1983 smash "Rockit," an incredible tune that traded on hip-hop currency, studio wizardry and the advanced musical skills of the players, including DJ Grandmixer D.ST. From there Laswell seemed to work with just about everybody: Mick Jagger, Peter Gabriel, Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, DJ Spooky, George Clinton, Afrika Bambaataa, Tony Williams, Public Image Ltd., Pharoah Sanders, Iggy Pop, the Last Poets, Yellowman, Sly and Robbie, Motorhead, Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango, Jungle Brothers, Master Musicians of Jajouka, Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco, Olodum, Zakir Hussain, Liu Sola, L. Shankar, Simon Shaheen, Foday Musa Suso, Angelique Kidjo and more – including his own wife, Ethiopian pop singer Gigi.
Laswell's played in numerous bands in addition to Material: free-jazz supergroup Last Exit with Sonny Sharrock, Ronald Shannon Jackson and Peter Brötzmann; metal-funkers Praxis featuring Buckethead and Bootsy Collins; plus Method of Defiance, Massacre, Painkiller, Arcana, Tabla Beat Science and more. He's also helmed numerous record labels including Celluloid, Axiom, Nagual, Subharmonic and Innerhythmic, and been charge of huge remix projects involving the catalogs of Miles Davis, Bob Marley and the Trojan catalog of classic reggae recordings. – Christopher Porter
