Laurence Cottle (born 16 December 1961) is a Welsh bass guitarist and composer.

Career

His solo recordings have been mostly in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and ke ...

. He was a member of the fusion quartet The Fents and appeared on their second album, ''The Other Side'', released on the Passport Jazz label in 1987. He played with

The Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They were accompan ...

on '' Gaudi'', their final album for Arista, and on ''

Freudiana ''Freudiana'' is a rock opera by Eric Woolfson. It was to be the 11th album by the Alan Parsons Project, but during its development, Woolfson had creative differences with Alan Parsons. The production, released in 1990, utilizes the Project ...

'', Parsons's final collaboration with

Eric Woolfson Eric Norman Woolfson (18 March 1945 – 2 December 2009) was a Scottish songwriter, lyricist, vocalist, executive producer, pianist, and co-creator of The Alan Parsons Project. Together with Parsons they sold over 50 million albums worldwide. ...

. He is the brother of Richard Cottle (also a musician), playing with him during his time with The Alan Parsons Project. Shortly after, he was hired by British heavy metal band

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped def ...

to play bass on the studio sessions that would become their 1989 album '' Headless Cross''. Cottle wrote and played all the bass parts for the album and appeared on the music video for the song "Headless Cross" but didn't perform live or tour with the band. In the 1990s, he produced three albums for guitarist

Jim Mullen Jim Mullen (born 26 November 1945) is a Scottish, Glasgow-born jazz guitarist with a distinctive style, like Wes Montgomery before him, picking with the thumb rather than a plectrum. Biography Jim Mullen was guitarist with Pete Brown & Piblo ...

and recorded with British jazz musicians

Mornington Lockett Mornington Edward Lockett (born 19 November 1961) is an English jazz saxophonist. Career Lockett began playing clarinet at the age of 14 while he was a student at Cowes High School, before switching to tenor saxophone. He studied at Dartington ...

, Tim Garland,

Django Bates Django Bates (born Leon Bates, 2 October 1960) is a British jazz musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and educator. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. Bates has been described as "one of the most talented music ...

Gerard Presencer Gerard Presencer (born 12 September 1972) is an English jazz trumpeter. Biography Presencer showed his first interest in what was to become his chosen instrument, the trumpet, at nine. He attributes his early determination to become a trumpete ...

, and John Graham. In 2000, Cottle appeared on the album '' Iommi'' from Tony Iommi. From 2003 to 2006, he was a member of

Bill Bruford William Scott Bruford (born 17 May 1949) is an English former drummer and percussionist who first gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes. After leaving Yes in 1972, Bruford spent the rest of the 1970s recording ...

Earthworks Earthworks may refer to: Construction *Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour *Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil *Earthworks (military), mi ...

. In 2009, he produced albums for Claire Martin, Gareth Williams, and Mark Nightingale. He leads his own Laurence Cottle Big Band playing a variety of standards and his own material. Cottle has also played on

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list o ...

's 1986 album ''

August August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named '' Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month i ...

'' as well as

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

's ''

Keep Me Singing ''Keep Me Singing'' is the 36th studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released on 30 September 2016 by Caroline Records. It is Morrison's highest-charting album in the US, and third US Top 10 album, following the success ...

'' and '' Roll with the Punches''.

References

External links

Official site
* 1961 births Living people Black Sabbath members Musicians from Swansea British jazz composers Jazz fusion bass guitarists Earthworks (band) members Human Chain members The Alan Parsons Project members Welsh guitarists {{UK-jazz-musician-stub