Bill Laswell / With A Heartbeat / Glossy Mistakes

“With A Heartbeat” is a kind of concept LP. It has a central idea at its core. It finds legendary bassist / producer Bill Laswell operating on his preferred border of dub, jazz and non-Western musics, with a circle of friends, who also happen to be celebrated virtuoso performers: saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, cornet player Graham Hayes, guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, with Jeff Bova on keys and Trilok Gurtu on voice and tabla. None of this is out of the ordinary for the perpetually prolific Laswell, however, what makes this set different are the cardiology recordings provided by Dr. Jean-Louis Zink. These, of course, are the heartbeat of the album’s title, and form the pulse that the 4 extended tracks are built upon. The underlying aim of all Laswell’s fusions is to demonstrate humanity’s commonality, the things that bind us, regardless of history, politics or race, and here he uses the slow, steady “lub dub” pump, something everyone shares, to further illustrate this. The opening track,…