Bill Laswell

Laswell’s significance is primarily as someone who makes things happen, a tirelessly energetic genre-crossing experimentalist. Individuals he has played with, produced or promoted (often all three) range from Anderson to Zorn, by way of Burroughs, Byrne, Brötzmann, Eno (who taught him about production), Hancock, Lydon, Kuti, Sanders, Shorter, Perry, Jagger and Ono — and a whole lot more, including noted hip-hop DJ’s and leading musicians from the US, Europe, Africa and Jamaica. Many of these became lasting friends. Bowles, exceptionally if understandably, asked Laswell to undo what he had done, but too late.