John Law (musician)

John Law is a British jazz pianist and composer, born in London to British and Austrian parents.

Biography

He started classical piano at the age of four, playing in public at the age of six. With early encouragement from the Austrian concert pianist Alfred Brendel he was awarded a scholarship to study piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied from 1979–1983, winning prizes for piano playing. After being awarded an Austrian government scholarship to study with the Viennese pianist Paul Badura-Skoda he studied for a year in Vienna at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Wien. It was in Vienna that he first came across jazz and decided to pursue a career in this field, hoping to combine his love of the piano and performing with his interest in composition.

After some initial studies with Simon Purcell his early interest lay in freely improvised music. He performed with Evan Parker, Louis Moholo and Barry Guy, among others. In 1990 he began a long-term musical relationship with the saxophonist and composer Jon Lloyd, recording with Lloyd's quartet his first CD, Syzygy, for the Leo Records label. More recently Law appeared on Jon Lloyd's Vanishing Points (2013). Later John Law was to turn back to an exploration of his classical roots with a four-CD solo piano set entitled Chants, which was a series of compositions/improvisations based on early music and plainchant. Later still John turned towards a more recognisably contemporary jazz area, working with Tim Garland, Tim Wells, Dave Wickins, Steve Watts, Martin Speake, Paul Clarvis, Julian Siegel, Julian Nicholas and others, though his work has continued to include references to classical music, freely improvised music and the avant garde.

John Law

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John Law (economist)

John Law (baptised 21 April 1671 – 21 March 1729) was a Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade. He was appointed Controller General of Finances of France under the Duke of Orleans, regent for the youthful king, Louis XV.

In 1716 Law established the Banque Générale in France, a private bank, but three-quarters of the capital consisted of government bills and government-accepted notes, effectively making it the first central bank of the nation. He was responsible for the Mississippi Company bubble and a chaotic economic collapse in France, which has been compared to the early-17th century tulip mania in Holland. The Mississippi Bubble was contemporaneous with the South Sea Company bubble of England.

Law was a gambler and a brilliant mental calculator. He was known to win card games by mentally calculating the odds. He originated economic ideas such as "The Scarcity Theory of Value" and the "real bills doctrine". Law’s views held that money creation will stimulate the economy, that paper money is preferable to metallic money, and that shares are a superior form of money since they pay dividends.

John Law (Burning Man)

John Law is an American artist, culture-jammer, and co-founder of the Cacophony Society and a member of the Suicide Club. He is also a co-founder of the Burning Man Festival (AKA Zone Trip #4, AKA Black Rock City) which evolved out of the spirit of the Cacophony Society when a precursor solstice party was banned from San Francisco's Baker Beach and merged with another Cacophony event on the Black Rock desert in Nevada. He is from San Francisco, California.

Cacophony Society

John Law is one of the co-founders of the Cacophony Society, a Culture jamming group with open membership, inspired in part by his earlier participation in the Suicide Club, which was in turn influenced by dadaists and situationists. Cacophony Society began in San Francisco, California, but eventually spread to most major cities in the United States and some outside the US. Claims have been made that Cacophony Society no longer exists, although some chapters are still active.

In 2013 John Law, along with Kevin Evans and Carrie Galbraith, co-authored "Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society", a book published by Last Gasp documenting the San Francisco Cacophony Society.