Bill Laurance

Bill Laurance is an English composer, producer, and multi-instrumental musician. Laurance is a member of jazz fusion and funk band Snarky Puppy,[2] as well as founder and CEO of London-based record label Flint Music.[3]

Bill Laurance
Laurence in Denmark in 2020
Background information
Born (1981-04-02) 2 April 1981
London, England, UK[1]
GenresJazz, classical, electronic, fusion
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, arranger, producer
InstrumentsPiano, keyboards
Years active1995–present
LabelsGroundUP Music, Flint Music
Associated actsSnarky Puppy, David Crosby, Michael League, Morcheeba, Salif Keita, Jordan Rudess, Susana Baca, Lalah Hathaway, Laura Mvula, Jacob Collier, Musiq Soulchild, Chris Potter, Lionel Loueke, Carlos Malta, Ms. Dynamite, The Metropole Orchestra, WDR Big Band
Websitewww.billlaurance.com

Biography

Bill Laurance was born on 2 April 1981 and raised in North London, England. As a child he attended William Tyndale primary school, during which he began learning piano and playing with his school band.[4] At age 9 Laurance performed on organ during a school trip at London renowned live-music venue Union Chapel, a locale he would later again perform at as an adult during the recording of his fourth studio album Live at Union Chapel.[5] Having been trained on ragtime and swing, Laurance first began playing jazz at the age of 14 when he became the resident performer for a small restaurant in the Soho district on the West End of London.[6] As an adult Laurance attended and graduated from the University of Leeds, studying classical music, composition, and performance.[6][7]

During his tenure at Leeds, Laurance met traveling University of North Texas jazz student Michael League, the two going on to perform a number of shows together in the UK.[7] It was here that League and Laurance became close friends. League subsequently invited Laurence to join jazz ensemble Snarky Puppy before the recording of the group's first studio album. With Snarky Puppy's first album The Only Constant releasing in 2006, it wasn't until 2014 when Laurance would go on to release his first solo album Flint.

Laurance is also an artist in residency at Morley College and has taught master classes as a visiting lecturer with The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance.[8][9]

Film composition

Laurance was a 2018 participant of the Sundance Institute Film Music and Sound Design Lab, taking place at Skywalker Sound in California.[10] His debut feature film score was for Un Traductor (2018),[11] an independent drama by directing brothers Sebastián and Rodrigo Barriuso which was named as Cuba's official entry for the 92nd Academy Awards.[12][13] Laurance also wrote several themes for Initials S.G. (2019),[11] a film for which co-director and writer Rania Attieh won the 2019 Nora Ephron award at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.[14][15] Laurance has also worked alongside Marcus Eaton as composer for the 2019 documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name.[11][16]

Collaborations

Laurance frequently collaborates with the guitarist, singer, and songwriter David Crosby. He co-wrote and featured on piano in Crosby's track Your Own Ride, lifted from the 2018 album, Here If You Listen.[17] Laurance is also featured on two tracks from Crosby's 2016 studio album, Lighthouse. Additionally, Laurance provided piano on the recording Somebody Home, dual featured on both Crosby's 2017 album Sky Trails,[18] and Snarky Puppy's 2016 album Family Dinner – Volume 2.[19] In a 2018 interview, Crosby described Laurance as "one of the best piano players I've ever met in my life."[20]

In November 2018, Bill Laurance collaborated with the WDR Big Band of Cologne, performing concerts at Kölner Philharmonie[21] and Southbank's Queen Elizabeth Hall[22] in London. The concert in Cologne was recorded and resulted in a live album consisting of nine Laurance compositions, arranged by bandleader Bob Mintzer.[23]

As a member of Snarky Puppy, Laurance has collaborated with a number of artists and groups, including the Metropole Orkest, with whom the band won a GRAMMY award for the 2016 album, Sylva.[24] As part of their Family Dinner Vol.1 and Family Dinner Vol. 2 albums, Laurance collaborated with artists including Lalah Hathaway (whom he also accompanied at the GroundUP Music Festival in 2019[25]), Salif Keita, Susana Baca, Laura Mvula and Jacob Collier.

Awards and honors
  • 2014 - British newspaper The Guardian published an article praising studio album Flint, titling Laurance a "jazz maestro".[26]
  • 2014 - Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance as a member of Snarky Puppy for title Something, featuring Lalah Hathaway, from the Snarky Puppy album Family Dinner Volume II
  • 2015 - UK digital radio station Jazz FM awarded Laurance as 'Breakthrough Act of the Year'.[27]
  • 2016 - Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album as a member of Snarky Puppy for the album Sylva by Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orkest
  • 2017 - Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album as a member of Snarky Puppy for the album Culcha Vulcha by Snarky Puppy
  • 2017 - Online magazine UDiscoverMusic named Laurance's first live album Live at Union Chapel to their 2017 list of 'The 50 Greatest Live Jazz Albums', as well as Snarky Puppy's Sylva with Metropole Orkest.[28]

Personal Views

Brexit

In 2019, while touring in Berlin, Germany to promote his studio album Cables, Laurance played a completely improvisational piano piece channeling the emotions elicited by the UK government's decision to officially withdraw from the European Union (EU), commonly referred to as Brexit. Laurance described the decision to leave the EU and the ensuing political events as "total madness and chaos", stating "It's devastating, the prospect, that [he] as a British person wouldn't be part of Europe." In a related interview with Sam Howson of UK film group Mascot Video, Laurance stated "Everything is about to become more segregated and divided. I believe now, more than ever, we need to celebrate what we have in common over what we don't."[29]

In a 2019 interview with Band on the Wall, Laurance shared "I think now more than ever that it’s important to be active about this stuff. There are things I’ve shied away from in the past, but now I feel like it’s part of the responsibility of a musician to raise these things and be more active. It’s passivity that has led us to Brexit, Trump… so we have to be more engaged”.[30]

Technology and science

In 2019, Laurance released his fifth solo record Cables which was influenced heavily by technology, science fiction, and science fact. In an interview with David Vincent of BrumNotes magazine, Laurence stated, "I’m fascinated by technology and the speed at which it’s growing and I think that it has to be harnessed in some way. If you’re dealing in any creative world I think technology, and using technology, is an important part, and has to be an important part, of what we do."[31] Examples of Laurance's passion for science and technology can be found throughout Cables, as many of the songs are inspired, named after, and composed in honour of these subjects.[32]

Track two of Cables, entitled HAL, is named after the fictional artificially intelligent (AI) computer HAL 9000, a character in Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'.[33] Track four of Cables, entitled Ebb Tide, was inspired by climate change and the fragility of the Earth's now rising sea level.[34] While performing Ebb Tide at Kölner Philharmonie in Cologne, Germany, Laurance stated “Climate change is real.”[33] The final and eighth track of Cables, entitled Cassini, is named after the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, whose mission was to study Saturn. The cadence of the song follows the spacecraft's final mission, commonly referred to as the "Grand Finale", in which the satellite was deliberately sacrificed in order to maximum scientific output while also preventing biological contamination of Saturn's local moons.[35][36]

Climate change

Laurance has been vocal about his belief in the phenomenon of anthropogenic climate change. Laurance is amongst the musicians and music organisations who have signed the Music Declares Emergency declaration, which calls for 'an immediate governmental response to protect all life on Earth.'[37] During a 2019 concert at La Petite Halle, Paris, Laurance stated "Climate change is real [...] we have to be more active about it."[38]

Discography
Year Album details Peak chart positions
US
Contemporary Jazz[39] Jazz[40] New Age[41]
2014 Flint 16 33 —
2015 Swift
  • Released: 27 April 2015
  • Label: GroundUP
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 10 — —
2016 Aftersun
  • Released: 4 March 2016
  • Label: Universal Classics, GroundUP
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 7 19 —
2016 Live at Union Chapel
  • Released: 11 November 2016
  • Label: Universal Classics, GroundUP
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 15 — —
2019 Cables
  • Released: 8 March 2019
  • Label: Flint Music
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 — — 6
2019 Live at the Philharmonie, Cologne
  • Released: 8 November 2019
  • Label: Jazzline
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 — — —
2020 Live at Ronnie Scott's
  • Released: 14 February 2020
  • Label: Flint Music
  • Formats: CD, digital download
 — — —
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

As group member or sideman: [42][43]

with Eddie Roberts

  • Roughneck (Live In Paris) (One Note Records, 2006)
  • The Eddie Roberts Quintet Trenta (One Note Records, 2007)
  • Eddie Roberts & Freckles Move (One Note Records, 2010)

with Snarky Puppy

with Gabby Young & Other Animals

with David Crosby

with Ana Silvera

  • Oracles (Gearbox Records, 2016)

with The Sachal Ensemble

  • Song of Lahore (Universal, 2016)

featured on:

  • Mad Mats: Digging Beyond the Crates (BBE, 2017)
  • Modern Jazz Dance Classics, Vol. 1 (Staubgold, 2019)
gollark: Sad!
gollark: LyricLy gets some money for no work, the person gets their shady thing, gnobody gets TONS of money purchasing-power-wise.
gollark: LyricLy take the job, make gnobody do it, pay gnobody half.
gollark: The solution here is obvious, actually.
gollark: I think you underestimate the difficulty of finding a job. And here there is a LOWER minimum wage for young people because government beeoid.

References
  1. "Bill Laurance discography". RateYourMusic. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  2. "Bill Laurance | Artists | GroundUP Music". groundupmusic.net. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  3. "Artists | Flint Music". flintmusic.bandcamp.com. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  4. Laurance, Bill (11 November 2016) [23 May 2016]. The Good Things - Live, Live at Union Chapel (CD). Union Chapel, Compton Terrace, Islington, London. 7:44 minutes in.
  5. Garratt, Rob (23 January 2017). "Snarky Puppy's Bill Laurance on his new album and how he is ushering in a new jazz movement". The National. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  6. "The Inherent Spirituality in Music: Bill Laurance's Exclusive › Bop Spots". Bop Spots. 24 February 2018. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  7. Nash, Louise (30 January 2014). "Grammy win for School of Music alumnus". www.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  8. "Bill Laurance". Morley College. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  9. "Bill Laurance Masterclass". ICMP. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  10. "BMI and Skywalker Sound Complete Another Successful Year of Supporting Sundance Institute Lab". BMI.com. 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  11. "Bill Laurance". IMDb. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  12. "New Cuban films submitted to Oscars and Goya awards: 'Un Traductor' and 'Inocencia' (+ Trailers)". Cuba 50. 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  13. "Oscars: Cuba Selects UN TRADUCTOR as its Academy Awards Candidate". Cinema Tropical. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  14. McNary, Dave (2019-05-02). "'Burning Cane,' Wendell Pierce, Haley Bennett Win Tribeca Awards". Variety. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  15. "Tribeca: 'Burning Cane,' 'Scheme Birds' Among Awards Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  16. "DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME". Sony Pictures Classics + Mixed Media Workshop. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  17. "Here If You Listen - David Crosby | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  18. "David Crosby - Sky Trails". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  19. "Snarky Puppy - Family Dinner Volume Two". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  20. David Crosby - "Your Own Ride " Behind The Track, retrieved 2019-10-06
  21. www.mir.de, m i r media-Digital Agency-. "B. Laurance, WDR Big Band, B. Mintzer". Kölner Philharmonie. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  22. "Bill Laurance and Bob Mintzer's WDR Big Band come to the EFG London Jazz Festival". EFG London Jazz Festival. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  23. "WDR Big Band und Bill Laurance Part 1". WDR Nachrichten (in German). 2018-11-25. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  24. "Snarky Puppy". GRAMMY.com. 2014-03-04. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  25. Lalah Hathaway and Bill Laurance - GUM Fest VIP Brunch Performance, retrieved 2019-10-16
  26. Fordham, John (2014-10-07). "Bill Laurance Project review – visually evocative jazz gets bodies swaying". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  27. "Jazz FM Awards". Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  28. "The 50 Greatest Live Jazz Albums". UDiscoverMusic. February 27, 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
  29. Brexit Improv. with Bill Laurance. Live improvisation in Berlin, retrieved 2019-10-07
  30. "Bill Laurance on the thrill of solo performance and his new concept record, Cables". Band on the Wall. 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  31. Vincent, David (2019-04-14). "Technology liberates Bill Laurance". Brum Notes Magazine. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  32. "Cables, by Bill Laurance". Bandcamp. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  33. Desmicht, Fabian (2019-04-26). "Bill Laurance's 'Cables' – Soothing sounds for the wireless age". Unearthing Music. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  34. "Climate Science Special Report". science2017.globalchange.gov. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  35. Blaber, Phillippa; April 3, Angélique Verrecchia on; Contamination, 2014 in Interplanetary; Life, Extraterrestrial (2014-04-03). "Cassini-Huygens: Preventing Biological Contamination". Space Safety Magazine. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  36. "NASA Spacecraft Dives Between Saturn and Its Rings". NASA Solar System Exploration. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  37. "Music Declares Emergency". Music Declares Emergency. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  38. JAZZLIVE at La Petite Halle (21st February 2019), retrieved 2019-10-07
  39. "Bill Laurance Chart History - Contemporary Jazz Albums". Billboard. Retrieved 2019-09-23.
  40. "Bill Laurance Chart History - Jazz Albums". Billboard. Retrieved 2019-09-23.
  41. "Bill Laurance Chart History - New Age Albums". Billboard. Retrieved 2019-09-23.
  42. "Bill Laurance/Credits". AllMusic, member of the RhythmOne group. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
  43. "Music". Flint Music. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
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