BY PETER
WETHERBEE, ANDREW
PERROY
A sampling of the artists Robert Musso has recorded (or mixed) gives an idea of the stratospheric world he inhabits on a daily basis — Ornette Coleman, Bootsy Collins, Buckethead, Herbie Hancock, Iggy Pop, Carlos Santana, John Zorn, Sly & Robbie, Pharoah Sanders, George Clinton, Master Musicians of Jajouka and the Dalai Lama. But these names aren't isolated high points in his life. They are part of his day job with Bill Laswell. He has worked in every major studio in NYC and intimately knows many others worldwide — from George Martin's AIR to Compass Point in the Bahamas]. Musso, in his duties as an audio engineer, has been producer Bill Laswell's right-hand man for a quarter century; but you can frequently find Musso the guitarist playing extreme avant-noise with such stellar downtown NYC improvisers as the late Sonny Sharrock or Ornette Coleman, while deftly overseeing the recording and release of DVDs of scores of these types of events through his MussoMusic digital distribution company. Robert is also an educator at the Institute of Audio Research. Musso's personal discography, as an artist and producer, includes various albums with his infamous Machine Gun ensemble, as well as many solo projects and collaborations on various labels, including his ambient Transonic series of CDs.
