Bill Laswell
b. 14 February 1950. Laswell started playing guitar but later switched to bass. He was, he has said, more interested in being in a band than in playing music, but in the '70s he became more committed and has since organized some of the most challenging bands in recent popular music, including Material, Curlew (with Tom Cora, Nicky Skopelitis and George Cartwright) and Last Exit (with Sonny Sharrock, Peter Brötzmann and Ronald Shannon Jackson). He also established OAO and Celluloid, two adventurous record labels. For the latest Material album, THIRD POWER, he assembled a band including Shabba Ranks, The Jungle Brothers, Herbie Hancock, Sly & Robbie and Fred Wesley. Laswell and Hancock had already worked together, in Last Exit (on NOISE OF TROUBLE) and on two Hancock albums which he produced: on FUTURE SHOCK in particular the ‘backing band’ was effectively Material. The list of albums, below includes only those that Laswell has made under his own name; in addition he has produced for a wide range of people, including Iggy Pop, Motorhead, Laurie Anderson, Fela Kuti, Gil Scott-Heron, Yellowman, Afrika Bambaataa, Yoko Ono, Public Image Limited, Mick Jagger, Nona Hendryx, James "Blood" Ulmer and Manu Dibango.