Bill Laswell Remix's

Back in 1997 I was hanging around some music friends talking about people who in the music world are creative in the way they put music out or promote music or even expose new ideas or new musical ventures. The example I should use is like how John Zorn made a tribute album to Ennio Morricone. When you hear his musical interpration of Ennio's cinema's most important soundtrack stuff you realize that John Zorn and countless others really love music as a whole. They are not afraid to tell their audience who listen to them, who their musical inspiration is. I liked when Zorn did that and it taught me to actually listen to what John Zorn is doing and what he thinks is the music is that we should be digging, reevaluate and listen to.

We got on the subject of Bill Laswell. I think now that Bill Laswell is a genius. Then, I did not know much about him except for his better then average bass playing. I thought his musical skills were out of this world. His playing on albums he was leading or just in the band made it so much more fun. I even had Laswell produced albums like Axiom Funk and other Axiom products. For people who don't know Axiom was a record label headed by Bill Laswell to promote worldly music that would not get exposed. These artist on these albums included Sonny Sharrock, Ginger Baker, Henry Threadgill, Praxis, and countless others. I had about two dozen of these albums and they were so good to listen to. They did not stick to one label, they had all kinds of genre crossing or musical sounding that I was eager to soak up and enjoy.



My friend told me that he thought what Bill Laswell should do is find a way to mix the Fusion Miles Davis or mid 70's James Brown. My friend pointed out that this stuff does not get enough credit for changing the world of popular music. Bill must have been closely listening to our conversation because a year later he made such a great Miles Davis reconstruction. The stuff was music I was still getting into, but it was great to hear stuff that made me more and more go out and seek this stuff out. For the longest time these "Fusion/Funk" albums were long out of print. I remember listening to them at the record store and my friend telling me that his Japanese imports of these albums set him back $300 at one point. That was for three two CD sets. At one point in 1996 I had to buy the import versions myself of Live Evil and Get Up With It and those cost me about $80. In 1997 a great re-issue campaign got Live Evil in print but neglected Get Up With It and Big Fun. Both finally surfaced in 2000.

In 1997 my friend still working at the store came over to me and handed me a promo CD. He wrapped it up in birthday type paper and told me to go home and listen with headphones. I asked him what it was and he told me that I would love it. When I picked up my CD's and grabbed that one too, I wanted to open it right away. I decided to wait till I got home. When I was home my parents laughed and told me that my friend does not know that my birthday is more six months away. When I opened it up it was the Miles Davis Remix album. Panthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis from 1969-1974. I was like in awe. Had no idea what to think. I put it on and quickly grabbed my headphones. It was like I just stepped into a dream. This stuff was so great. I called my friend at work and he told me that it has not left his CD player since he too got a promo of the same CD. He was right though, the music did not leave my CD player for about two weeks.



So, if you can find this I suggest that you pick it up. Even if you don't have any Miles Davis Electric. It will be a great start to open your eyes to an era of Miles that is really great. In one of my early posts I did a review of Big Fun. I would suggest you try that out as well. Bill Laswell has a great way of bringing out some wonderful ideas and having people like us music geeks look over stuff that we remember. Try this and I know you as well, will love it too. Enjoy!