Rick Laird

Rick Laird was born in County Dublin on 5 February 1941, a musical child who learned bass lines from Ray Brown records before joining Auckland groups at eighteen. He toured New Zealand, Sydney and England, clashed with Brian Auger over electric bass, and became house bassist at Ronnie Scott's before co-founding the Mahavishnu Orchestra. His life moved from Irish childhood to global jazz stages, ending in Rockland County, New York, on 4 July 2021.