Bill Laurance

Bill Laurance, a British pianist, composer, arranger, and producer, creates richly atmospheric instrumental music that fuses jazz traditions with electronic textures across multiple genres. One of the founding members of the Grammy-winning collective Snarky Puppy, he first rose to prominence in the mid-2000s. Working alone, he blends acoustic piano with analog synthesizers and other electronics on such releases as the 2014 album Flint, 2016’s Aftersun, and 2019’s Cables. He also directs his own trio, captured on the 2020 set Live at Ronnie Scott’s, and has recorded with both the WDR Big Band and Manchester’s Untold Orchestra. His first album consisting entirely of solo acoustic piano appeared in 2023.

Born in 1981 and raised in North London, England, Laurance took up piano lessons in childhood and later gravitated toward jazz, embracing both swing and ragtime. During his teenage years he began performing at neighborhood pubs. After finishing secondary school he enrolled at the University of Leeds, where he studied classical music, composition, and performance. While there he met bassist Michael League, and together they established the Brooklyn-based ensemble Snarky Puppy, whose music merges jazz, fusion, and jam-band sensibilities. Laurance’s first appearance with the group came on the 2006 album The Only Constant; he has since contributed to more than thirteen releases and shared in five Grammy Award wins.

Outside the band, Laurance has collaborated with an array of musicians that includes the trip-hop trio Morcheeba, saxophonist Chris Potter, and West African guitarist Lionel Loueke. He also co-leads the electronic duo the Fix. His debut solo album, Flint, arrived in 2014 on GroundUp Music, followed the next year by Swift.

Laurance’s third solo album, Aftersun, appeared in 2016. Drawing on his fascination with astronomy and space exploration, the record featured contributions from Snarky Puppy colleagues Michael League and Robert “Sput” Searight as well as New Orleans percussionist Weedie Braimah. The similarly space-themed Cables followed in 2019; although initially planned as a solo piano project, it was co-produced and engineered by Nic Hard and ultimately expanded into a multi-instrumental recording on which Laurance performed every part himself.

Live documents include 2019’s Live at the Philharmonie, Cologne, which presented him alongside saxophonist Bob Mintzer and Germany’s WDR Big Band, and 2020’s Live at Ronnie Scott’s, spotlighting his trio of bassist Jonathan Harvey and drummer Marijus Aleksa. He also composed the score for the 2020 documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name. Two EPs, Cables Rewired and Zeal, surfaced in 2021. The following year brought both the live album Bill Laurance & The Untold Orchestra Live at EFG London Jazz Festival 2021, again uniting his trio with the Manchester-based Untold Orchestra and guest saxophonist Tim Garland, and Affinity, his first collection devoted exclusively to acoustic solo piano.