Sunday, August 25, 2013
BILL LASWELL (born February 12, 1955 in Salem,
Illinois and raised in Albion, Michigan) is an American bassist, producer andrecord
label owner.
Laswell ranks among the most prolific of modern musicians, being
involved in hundreds of recordings with many collaborators from all over the
world. Laswell's music draws upon many different genres, most
notably funk, various world music, jazz, dub andambient styles.
He has also played or produced music from the noisier, more aggressive end of
the rock spectrum, such ashardcore punk and metal.
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." The credo of one record label run by Laswell, and which
typifies much of his work, is "Nothing Is True, Everything Is
Permitted." Though projects arranged by Laswell 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 noisy dance music project, but subsequent releases have been
centered around hip hop, jazz, or backing spoken word readings
by beat generation icon William S. Burroughs. Similarly, most versions
of Praxis have featured guitarist Buckethead, but have explored
different permutations with each new album.
Though some artists have chafed against Laswell's distinctive
recording and production style (most noticeably some of his for-hire production
gigs including Motörhead, Swans and White Zombie) many
other collaborations, such as with pianist Herbie Hancock and
singer Iggy Pop have been lengthier and recurring. He has also worked
extensively with his wife, Ethiopian singer Gigi.
Though starting out as a guitar player, he soon switched to bass.
Laswell got his earliest professional experience as a bassist with funk groups
in and around Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan. He often would
see shows in Detroit that put together acts such as Iggy and the Stooges (he
would work with Pop throughout his career starting in the mid-1980s), MC5 and Funkadelic (many
of whose members are part of his stable of musicians).
Seeing these differing styles of music in his frequent trips to
Detroit, as well as being rooted in the African-American music that he grew up
immersed in, have clearly had an influence on Laswell's music. His exposure to
jazz musicians like John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and
particularly Miles Davis' electric experiments of the mid-1960s to
mid-1970s, have also clearly had an impact on his thinking. Laswell's refusal
to pigeon-hole himself, his music, or even the people he works with is arguably
his greatest asset as a musician and producer.
With Palm Pictures slowly moving into film and away from
music with the changing landscape of the industry, Laswell lost a major
supporter of his more high-concept albums, as well as the Axiom imprint. Under
Palm's umbrella, though, four highly regarded albums and a DVD set were
released. Of those releases there was a DVD set, a studio release and a live
2-disc set from Tabla Beat Science, a project that revolves somewhat
around the tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, son of the late Alla
Rakha. The studio release also featured Karsh Kale, Trilok Gurtu, Ustad
Sultan Khan and Talvin Singh. This very popular and well-received
grouping has become a primarily live project playing everywhere from the US
to Beirut to Japan over the years. The core of Laswell,
Kale, Kahn and Hussain are usually supplemented by other musicians, which have
included at various times Gigi, DJ Disk, Serj Tankian from System
of a Down, Sussan Deyhim, visual artist Petulia Mattioli, and others.
2001 saw the release of the album Life Space Death with
Japanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, Laswell on bass, guitar and keyboards
and words by the 14th Dalai Lama, interviewed by Kondo.
At the request of Chris Blackwell, 2001 also had Laswell
overseeing the debut release of Ethiopian singer Gigi for
Palm Pictures. Supplementing Gigi's multilingual, Ethiopian-rooted vocals with
a vast array of well-respected musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie
Hancock and Laswell himself, they created a strong release that was very
well received. Laswell and Gigi became romantically involved and were later
married. They have a son, Aman Laswell, who has accompanied his parents with
vocals. Gigi has figured in a number of her husband's releases and concerts
over the years, and he has produced further outings by her such as her Abyssinia
Infinite grouping and her second album, a solo release for Palm, Gold
& Wax.
1999 also saw the first release on Laswell's new label,
called Innerythmic (Eraldo Bernocchi and Toshinori Kondo's Charged project).
After a brief inactive period, the label restarted in earnest in 2001,
releasing over the next few years a slew of innovative albums from the likes
of Nicky Skopelitis/Raoul Björkenheim, James Blood Ulmer, Shin
Teraiand Gonervill, among others. Innerhythmic also released a live Praxis
recording and re-issued some of the Black Arc releases from the 1990s
including Zillatron, The Last Poets' Holy Terror and Buddy
Miles' Hell & Back. The label tends to go through extended
periods of inactivity but still releases albums here and there, the next planned
release being a studio recording featuring Raoul Björkenheim, Bill Laswell
and Morgan Ågren anticipated in the summer of 2011 according to
Björkenheim's website.
Though touching on the realm of drum and bass in the
1990s with his Oscillations releases and the compilation Tetragramaton:
Submerged - conceived along with Soares - the last few years
have seen Laswell step up his work in this area with Soares as a collaborator
in concept/A&R for drum & bass artist development. Starting with Brutal
Calling, a hard drum 'n' bass release with Ohm Resistance label owner Submerged (Kurt
Gluck), a series of releases and live dates have cropped up. Laswell's new
project in this vein is Method of Defiance (the actual Method of
Defiance name and the original idea of a futurist, cyborg drum 'n' bass driven
group consisting of laptops breakbeat artists, electric instrumentalists and
trumpeter Graham Haynes was conceived by Soares). The first release
focused on the core of Laswell and Submerged once again, entitled The
only way to go is down, featuring photos of Soares, with contributions from
Toshinori Kondo and drummer Guy Licata. The second release under the
moniker, though, was more of a compilation-style project, though still focusing
on drum 'n' bass. Inamorata stretched the concept out, pairing
Laswell's bass with a different combination of respected jazz and world musicians
and drum 'n' bass producers linked to Soares on each track. Artists including
Herbie Hancock, John Zorn, Pharoah Sanders, Nils Petter Molvaer,
Toshinori Kondo and Buckethead were paired with drum 'n' bass
producers including AMIT, Paradox, Submerged, Future
Prophecies, Karsh Kale, Evol Intent, SPL, Outrage, Fanu,
and Corrupt Souls. To that end, Laswell's last collaboration with Soares
was a full-on recording with Finnish drum 'n' bass maestro Fanu on Ohm Resistance
and Karl Records, entitled Lodge, which includes contributions from
Molvaer and Bernie Worrell amongst others. After collaborating with Laswell for
15 years, Soares left the crew in 2008. The concept of the group has once again
morphed into a full band concept. In 2009, Rare Noise Records released Live
in Nihon, which showcased this new direction/grouping. The group now
consisted of Laswell, Guy Licata, Dr. Israel, Toshinori Kondo and Bernie
Worrell.
Along with frequent live dates around the world with Method of
Defiance, Material, Painkiller and the re-formed in the late 1990s
Massacre (with This Heat's Charles Haywardnow in the drum chair)
Laswell still makes numerous trips to Japan each year for various
recordings and live dates, including his ongoing Tokyo
Rotation mini-festivals at the Shinjuku Pit-Inn, which is now a yearly
occurrence. In addition to Tokyo Rotation being an actual mini-festival, the
moniker has been used as a sort of umbrella to include general operations
revolving around activities in Japan, as witnessed by the usage of Tokyo
Rotation Presents in relation to the website's announcement of other
gigs outside the Pit Inn shows as well being noted on Method of Defiance's
release Nihon.
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