Jazz Articles about Bill Laswell

Bill Laswell: Version 2 Version: A Dub Transmission

by John Kelman
December 2, 2004

Sometimes music is meant to engage the mind; other times it is meant purely to involve the body. Some would argue that the best music does both, and there may be some truth to that belief, but the reality is that there is room for both as distinct and separate entities. While much of Bill Laswell's work over the past thirty years has been of a more physical nature, there's no denying that a lot of thought and effort goes ...

Bill Laswell: Version 2 Version: A Dub Transmission

by Chris M. Slawecki
November 16, 2004

Bassist, composer, and producer Laswell here reconvenes with several co-conspirators from previous dub and other world-beat projects: Keyboardist Bernie Worrell, drummer/percussionist Abdou Mboup, percussionist Karsh Kale (who served with Laswell in Tabla Beat Science and in the rhythm section for Herbie Hancock's acclaimed Future 2 Future set), and bassist Jah Wobble.

I get Laswell's dub, or at least I think I do. It's Miles Dewey Davis dub: No musical instrument, rhythm, style, or sound is out of bounds ...

Bill Laswell - The Musician Becomes The Music

by Raul d'Gama Rose
October 25, 2003

New Age. World Beat. World Music. What have we here? Are these terms that the psychoanalysts may write in a prescription to heal the music industry sociopath? Are they what some of today’s musicians would throw as a sop to the industry? A musical cop out by accidental artists who believe that they are creating something new? It is more likely to be the industry’s way of allowing music that is beyond comfortable category to see the light of day, ...

Bill Laswell: Operazone: The Redesign

by AAJ Staff
August 1, 2000

No one ever accused Bill Laswell of closed-mindedness. He's done production work with artists from Herbie Hancock to Public Image Limited. His own groups have explored the territory from subsonic dub to all-out thrash metal. Laswell's remix record Panthalassa reassembled the electric fusion of Miles Davis into an authentic, accessible form. On Operazone, he works with Alan Douglas and Karl Berger to revisit and revamp some of the “greatest hits" of opera, using a Third Stream approach.

I never thought ...

Bill Laswell and Sacred System: Imaginary Cuba: Deconstructing Havana

by Jack Bowers
September 1, 1999

This is “piecemeal” music, spliced together in a studio by Bill Laswell to present a sound–picture of modern–day Havana, Cuba. It’s world music, not Jazz, and how well the enterprise succeeds is, we presume, in the ear of the beholder. Laswell has been called (by Billboard magazine) “way ahead of his time.” He may be well ahead of mine too. Laswell painted his Cuban portrait by organizing a series of location recordings in the studios, streets and back rooms of ...

Bill Laswell: Invisible Design

by AAJ Staff
May 1, 1999

Bill Laswell's primary role as producer on most of his recordings has historically overshadowed his role as musician and performer. He earned a notorious reputation for his fine work with musicians like Pharoah Sanders and Ginger Baker, though the end products of these collaborations have fairly been criticized for being over-produced. The characteristic Laswell sound is quite wet: heavy on effects and thickly textured. In rare moments Laswell has stepped out on his own as an instrumentalist, playing bass outside ...