In 1978, having received a substantial royalty payment for his work with The Yardbirds, Georgian music entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky relocated to New York City in an attempt to open up the American market to the European progressive jazz-rock bands he was working with, such as Gong, Henry Cow and Magma. He established the Zu Club in Manhattan and after meeting 24-year-old bass player Bill Laswell, encouraged him to form a band. Three young friends, Michael Beinhorn (17, synthesizer), Martin Bisi (17, engineering) and Fred Maher (14, drums), responded to Laswell's advert in The Village Voice and the band began rehearsing in the club's basement.[1] They were joined by guitartist Cliff Cultreri and then by organist Mark Kramer, who had befriended Gomelsky while attending a Captain Beefheart concert.[2]
The band became known as the "Zu Band" until Gomelsky hooked them up with former Gong frontman Daevid Allen for a performance at his Zu Manifestival at the Zu Club on October 8, 1978, for which they became "New York Gong". They were joined at this performance by saxophonist George Bishop and drummer Chris Cutler who were working on Allen's N'Existe Pas album, guitarist Michael Lawrence deputised for Cultreri, while Fred Frith guested on some pieces.[3]
Allen returned in March 1979 and the group of Laswell, Beinhorn, Maher, Cultreri and Kramer were joined by drummer Stu Martin and alto-saxophonist Don Davis, a friend of Kramer.[2] They toured North America in an old school bus from April into June playing most of Gong's Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, with Martin departing after a few weeks, his place being taken by another of Kramer's friends, Bill Bacon.[2][4] In autumn, they recorded the album About Time,[5] followed by a September and October tour of France, after which Allen and the band amicably parted company when they "discovered they couldn't stand the European way of life".[6][nb 1]
1979–1982: The band
The band then took the name Material, from the Laswell/Cultreri-composed instrumental "Materialism" on the About Time album. Their debut recording was 1979's instrumental industrialfunkTemporary Music 1 EP for Gomelsky's Zu Records. Jean Georgakarakos and Jean-Luc Young had been involved with Allen in Paris since 1969 through their various independent record companies (BYG, Tapioca, LTM and Charly).[7] In the late 1970s Karakos started Celluloid with Jean-François Bizot and Gilbert Castro having initial success in France with Jacno and Toure Kunda.[8] He followed Gomelsky to New York and struck up a partnership with Laswell, Celluloid becoming an outlet for Laswell's activity, and Laswell becoming an in-house producer for many of Celluloid's other acts. Their first combined output was Material's "Discourse" single in 1980.[9]
They were reduced back to the trio of Beinhorn, Laswell and Maher for the 1981 EP Temporary Music 2 (included Don Davis on saxophone,"White Man"). The departed Cultreri later worked in A&R for Relativity Records where he is credited with bringing Megadeth, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani to the label.[10]
The group would play around New York as a three-piece with a revolving list of “front-men” such as guitarists Sonny Sharrock and Fred Frith, saxophonists Byard Lancaster and Henry Threadgill or cornetist Olu Dara. Laswell explained "We have a lot of directions to pursue, we do get involved in quite a few projects, and we like bringing different people into Material. It's healthy for us as players, and it's a way of exposing good musicians to new audiences. But even though we're fluid, we definitely are a band. And since whatever we play tends to have a strong pulse to it, I'd say we're a rock band... Playing with really strong musicians does change our playing, we improvise and play off one another. We may sound somewhat different, depending on who's playing with us, but to me that's an advantage."[11]
The first full album as Material, Memory Serves, was instrumental and featured strong jazz leanings with contributions from Sharrock, Frith, Dara, Threadgill and violinist Billy Bang.
They started working with singers and their music became more melodic and funkier. Their next single "Ciquiri" (included on the American Songs EP) which featured guitarist Robert Quine, became popular in New York City dance clubs. The 1981 "Bustin' Out" single was released as an extended club mix peaking at number two on the dance charts.[12] On "Busting Out", they were fronted by singer Nona Hendryx with support from guitarist Ronnie Drayton. This line-up also recorded "It's a Holiday" for a split single with Cristina.
By 1982's One Down, Maher had left the band (he subsequently became a core member of the second incarnation of Scritti Politti), and they embraced a multitude of singers including Nona Hendryx, B.J. Nelson, R. Bernard Fowler and Whitney Houston (in one of her first recordings). Houston's performance was a cover version of Hugh Hopper's "Memories", which also featured a lead break by saxophonist Archie Shepp. Critic Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called her contribution "one of the most gorgeous ballads you've ever heard".[13] As an indication of the direction the band headed for, Chic's guitarist Nile Rodgers was involved alongside Frith and Drayton, but perhaps more significantly, was one of the first appearances of longtime Laswell collaborator Nicky Skopelitis on guitar.
1982–1989: Collaborations
Laswell and Beinhorn settled into a duo and began working with other musicians, producing, writing and performing, with Martin Bisi continuing occasionally as the engineer. They worked initially in the electro genre, but were persuaded to move into the fields of hip-hop and rap by Karakos who had been introduced to likes of turntablistD.St and rappers PHASE 2, Futura 2000 and Fab Five Freddy by Bernard Zekri.[8][9]
A chance meeting between Laswell and Herbie Hancock at Elektra Records, in which the latter expressed interest in making music in the vein of Malcolm McLaren's "Buffalo Gals", led to a collaboration that brought forth the Future Shock album and the hit single "Rockit".[1] They would collaborate with Hancock on two further albums released under his name, 1984's Sound-System and 1988's Perfect Machine. Hancock himself would go on to contribute to many of Material and Laswell's projects.
Gong are a psychedelic rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Tim Blake, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.
William Otis Laswell is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, world music, jazz, dub, and ambient styles.
Massacre was founded in 1980 in New York City by guitarist Fred Frith, bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Fred Maher as an improvising and experimental rock band. They performed live for just over a year and recorded a studio album, Killing Time (1981). Frith and Laswell reformed Massacre in 1998 with drummer Charles Hayward, and released four more albums, Funny Valentine (1998), Meltdown (2001), Lonely Heart (2007) and Love Me Tender (2013). The last three albums were recorded live, the first in London, and the others at European festivals between 1999 and 2008.
Michael James Beinhorn is a North American record producer, composer, author, and musician. He has produced albums for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Hole, Korn, and Marilyn Manson.
Celluloid Records, a French/American record label, founded by Jean Georgakarakos operated from 1976 to 1989 in New York City, and produced a series of eclectic and ground-breaking releases, particularly in the early to late 1980s, largely under the auspices of de facto in-house producer Bill Laswell.
Camembert Electrique is the second studio album by the progressive rock band Gong, recorded and originally released in 1971 on the French BYG Actuel label. The album was recorded at Château d'Hérouville near Paris, France, produced by Pierre Lattès and engineered by Gilles Salle. Jean Karakos was executive producer.
Flying Teapot is the third studio album by the progressive rock band Gong, originally released by Virgin Records in May 1973. It was the second entry in the Virgin catalogue (V2002) and was released on the same day as the first, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells (V2001). It was re-issued in 1977, with different cover art, by BYG Actuel in France and Japan. Recorded at Virgin's Manor Studios, in Oxfordshire, England, it was produced by Giorgio Gomelsky and engineered by "Simon Sandwitch 2 aided by Tom Zen".
Live Floating Anarchy 1977 is a 1978 live album by Planet Gong, a combination of Gong's Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth and the band Here & Now. It was recorded in Toulouse on 6 November 1977, apart from the track "Opium for the People" which was a studio recording. It was originally released on the French LTM record label, run by Jean Karakos, who had previously run Tapioca and BYG.
Deadline was an electronic music collective with an ever rotating line-up. The core of the group was bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Phillip Wilson for their first album and Laswell and Jonas Hellborg for their second. Artists such as Aïyb Dieng, Michael Beinhorn, Bernie Worrell, Fred Maher, Robert Quine also made contributions to the project.
About Time is a 1980 album by Daevid Allen and Gong offshoot New York Gong. The basic line-up of New York Gong would continue without Allen as Material.
Temporary Music is the 1979 debut EP and 1981 debut album by the New York based no wave music group Material.
American Songs is a 1981 EP by the New York based No Wave music group Material.
Memory Serves is a 1981 album by the New York based No Wave music group Material.
"Bustin' Out" is a 1981 EP by the New York based No Wave music group Material. The vocals here are by Nona Hendryx. This single sees the band move further away from their experimental beginnings and in a funkier, more club-friendly direction.
One Down is a 1982 album by the New York based music group Material. The album finds Material moving away from their noisy no wave roots towards funk and R&B. The album was self-produced by Material, and was recorded by Martin Bisi in Brooklyn and Robert Musso in Manhattan. The album sees the band reduced to a duo of keyboardist Michael Beinhorn and bassist Bill Laswell, collaborating with different musicians and singers on each track. Whitney Houston made her recording debut as a lead vocalist on this album, for a version of the song "Memories".
Banana Moon is the debut solo album by Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist and Gong leader Daevid Allen, released in July 1971 on the French BYG Actuel label. The album is sometimes referred to as Bananamoon and it was also reissued as a Gong album.
The Third Power is a 1991 album by the New York based music group Material. The album mixes reggae, funk, dub and rap music.
Christopher David "Daevid" Allen was an Australian musician. He was co-founder of the psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong.
Jean Georgakarakos was a French-born Greek music producer, record label owner, and artist manager.
References
Footnotes
↑ Kramer would work again with Allen, recording the albums Who's Afraid? (1992) and Hit Men (1996) with Bill Bacon, as well as performing live as Brainville and recording The Children's Crusade (1998).[2]
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