Some Birthday Cheer for Bill Laswell

Severely sidelined by health issues since December 2022, when a rare blood infection that affected his heart resulted in an extended, multi-month hospitalization, bassist Bill Laswell has been recuperating at home while battling lingering pain and breathing problems.

The ‘80s was a remarkably prolific period for Bill Laswell, having produced albums by Herbie Hancock (Future Shock, Sound-System, Village Life, Perfect Machine), Laurie Anderson (Mr. Heartbreak, Home of the Brave), Mick Jagger (She’s the Boss), Ginger Baker (Horses and Trees), Sonny Sharrock (Guitar, Seize the Rainbow), Gil Scott-Heron (Re-Ron), Public Image Ltd. (Album), Motörhead (Orgasmatron, Rock ‘n’ Roll), The Ramones (Brain Drain), Iggy Pop (Instinct), Bootsy Collins (What’s Bootsy Doin’?), Sly & Robbie (Language Barrier, Rhythm Killers), Yoko Ono (Starpeace), Fela Kuti (Army Arrangement), Manu Dibango (Electric Africa, Afrijazzy), Afrika Bambaataa (Beware, The Funk Is Everywhere), Ryuichi Sakamoto (Neo Geo), Ronald Shannon Jackson (Texas), James Blood Ulmer (America: Do You Remember the Love?), The Last Poets (Oh My People) as well as his own groups Material, Massacre, Deadline and ‘80s avant-garde jazz/noise supergroup Last Exit (with guitarist Sonny Sharrock, saxophonist Peter Brötzman and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson).

That kind of output continued into the ‘90s with many of those same groups, while he also started a label (Axiom), formed new bands Praxis and PainKiller (the latter with John Zorn), while also producing albums for Henry Threadgill, Pharoah Sanders, The Master Musicians of Jajouka, Simon Shaheen, Bachir Attar, Umar Bin Hassan, Bernie Worrell, Buddy Miles Express, Buckethead, Icehouse, Jah Wobble, Julian Schnabel, Foday Musa Suso, Lee Scratch Perry, Tabla Beat Sciene, Matisyahu, Jonas Hellborg and many others. He maintained that kind of productivity as player-producer-engineer through the next two decades before finally hitting the wall in 2022.

Although Laswell has indeed been in ill health since then (his condition changes from week to week, sometimes from day to day), he has still miraculously managed to release a slew of new recordings in collaboration with some kindred spirits, including 2023’s Memoria (duet project with John Zorn), 2024’s PainKiller project Samsara (with Zorn and drummer Mick Harris) and their 2025 followup, The Equinox, 2025’s Cosmic Trip (with saxophonist Sam Morrison), and the upcoming Mount Analogue (a March 6 release on the Sub Rosa label based on a 1950s surrealist novel by René Daumal and featuring producer P.S.T, guitarist Henry Kaiser, trumpeters Nils Petter Molvaer and Graham Haynes, and saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum).

In a recent post on his GoFundMe page, Laswell’s manager Yoko Yamabe wrote: “Today Bill turns 71. It truly feels like a miracle that he is here with us, celebrating another birthday. There were moments when the future felt uncertain, and your kindness helped carry us through. Bill’s entire career has been a powerful statement of art over commerce. He has helped out countless artists over the years--always generous and unselfish when others have needed his help. While money has never been an issue, Bill now needs our help. Please contribute anything you can.”

Here is that link if you care to share: https://gofund.me/64a8cdbcc

The first time I saw Bill Laswell play bass, he had woven a screwdriver through the strings and was furiously whacking away at it, getting a percussiver steel drum sound from the instrument. It was weird and wonderful. I had never even thought of abusing a bass in such a manner. It was the winter of 1980, I had just moved to New York from Milwaukee and here I was at Roulette in Tribeca, getting an abrupt introduction to the so-called Downtown Improvisors Scene in the Big Apple from Laswell and his improvising partner on Derek Bailey Company concert, guitarist Fred Frith of Henry Cow fame. What Frith was doing to this guitar that night was evn more bizarre. He was whipping it with a bicycle chain, throwing rice at it, sweeping the fretboard with a whisk broom and sending windup toys scurrying up and down the neck. All I could think of as I took it all in was Dorothy’s refrain upon landing in Oz: “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

Since that eye-opening night at Roulette, some 45 years ago, I have seen Laswell play in a myriad of settings, including with Curlew at Maxwell’s in Hoboken; with The Golden Palominos at The Ritz; PainKiller (with John Zorn and Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris) in Montreal; Massacre (with guitarist Frith and drummer Fred Maher) at CBGBs, and many more. I was also present for various studio sessions, including one memorable one with star bass funkateer Bootsy Collins (where they mischievously joked about dosing record company exec Clive Davis with a tab of acid when he came by to visit the session). I was at Laswell’s studio in Greenpoint, where he showed me reel to reel tapes of a session he had done with drumming icon Tony Williams while also unveiling the coveted white Gibson SG that had once belonged to guitar god Allan Holdsworth, which he had somehow acquired. And I hung with Bill during sessions for Bob Belden’s 2015 Machine Language album by his Animation band, recorded at Laswell’s Orange Music Sound Studio in West Orange, New Jersey, where Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons had recorded once upon a time, as well as Jethro Tull, Humble Pie, Aerosmith and Carole King.

My long history with Laswell includes and interview/hang at the Landmark Tavern on 11th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen in 2020, which is the last time I saw him in person. I guess I need to catch up with a vist. Meanwhile, here’s a blast from the past — a story that I did on Laswell for the August 1986 issue of Downbeat: