Biography
One of Bill Laswell’s projects, Material was mixing jazz, funk and punk with hip-hop and scratch before the terms were invented; the result was stunning and powerful music. The original membership comprised Laswell (bass), Michael Beinhorn (keyboards), Fred Maher (drums), with additional input over the years coming from guitarists Fred Frith, Nicky Skopelitis and Sonny Sharrock, saxophonists Archie Shepp, Henry Threadgill and Oliver Lake, and vocalists Nona Hendryx and Bernard Fowler. Laswell and Beinhorn also recorded with Afrika Bambaataa as Shango, releasing Funk Theology in 1984. After a long hiatus in its career, Laswell reinstigated Material in 1989 with the world-influenced Seven Souls and The Third Power. Maher and Beinhorn were gone, but the new, back-on-the-block version included contributions from Shankar, Shabba Ranks, the Jungle Brothers, Herbie Hancock, Bootsy Collins and Maceo Parker.
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