Arts + Literature Laboratory presents Roscoe Mitchell Trio, Quartet & Solo and Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, with an opening set by the Anders Svanoe Trio, at Trinity Lutheran Church on Saturday, June 23, 2018 at 7:30pm. Advance tickets $30 online at https://largeunit.bpt.me or $40 at the door. Online sales end 1 hour before the show starts. Doors open at 7:00pm. Trinity Lutheran Church is located at 1904 Winnebago Street, Madison, WI. *PLEASE NOTE NEW VENUE*
This is a very special opportunity to hear internationally renowned musician, composer and innovator Roscoe Mitchell and his quartet featuring Jaribu Shahid (bass), Junius Paul (bass) and Vincent Davis (drums), his trio with Nils Bultmann (viola) and Jaribu Shahid (bass), and solo. His virtuosic resurrection of overlooked woodwind instruments spanning extreme registers, visionary solo performances, and assertion of a hybrid compositional/improvisational paradigm have placed him at the forefront of contemporary music. The Anders Svanoe Trio will open, featuring Anders Svanoe (sax), John Christensen (bass) and Michael Brenneis (drums).
Paal Nilssen-Love has been one of the world’s most prolific and active musicians that came out of Norway for the last 20 years. With thousands of gigs and hundreds of recordings the drummer is known for bands like The Thing, OffOnOff, Ballister, Hairy Bones, Chicago Tentet, and Original Silence, as well as collaborations with musicians like Arto Lindsay, Otomo Yoshihide, Akira Sakata, Ken Vandermark, Jim O’Rourke, Peter Brötzmann, Thurston Moore, Michiyo Yagi and many others.
In 2013 Nilssen-Love decided it was time to start his own big band ensemble. Consisting of mostly younger Norwegian musicians, Large Unit manifests as an intense powerhouse force on stage, but also veers into more subtle and textural passages. The group is also fortunate to include members from the other Nordic countries; Finland, Sweden and Denmark. In other words, Nordic music at its best!
Large Unit burst into life at the Molde Jazz festival July 2013 and has since then toured Norway and played festivals all over Europe. A small taste of what to expect came with the two-track EP ”First Blow”, but during autumn 2014, Large Unit unleashed its full load with the massive debut album called ”Erta Ale” – which was released in four different formats totaling more than two hours worth of new music. Large Unit was expanded to 14 members (including two Brazilian percussionists) in August 2015 and recorded live and studio which resulted in the CD named “ANA”. The album combines Brazilian rhythms, free blowing and big band riffing in a highly successful way.
Large Unit music is all compositions written by Nilssen-Love, but the musicians are always given great freedom to contribute their own flavours to the music. The band is stripped down to single players, duos etc and at times split into several groups. The power of the whole groups is of course a treat in itself when in full blast. Traces of Nilssen-Love's experience from groups like Peter Brötzmann Chicago tentet, Ken Vandermark's Territory band and Frode Gjerstad's Circulasione Totale Orchestra are of course evident. There is no doubt that Nilssen-Love has taken inspiration from his years in these bands but still with the aim to create a new group with a sound of its own.
Large Unit is:
Thomas Johansson (NO) – cornet and flugelhorn
Mats Äleklint (SE) - trombone
Kristoffer Alberts (NO) – tenor and alto saxophone
Julie Kjær (DK) – alto saxophone and flute
Klaus Holm (NO) – alto and baritone saxophone
Per Åke Holmlander (SE) – tuba
Kalle Moberg (NO) - accordion
Ketil Gutvik (NO) – electric guitar
Tommi Keranen (FIN) – electronics
Jon Rune Strøm (NO) – double and electric bass
Christian Meaas Svendsen (NO) – double and electric bass
Andreas Wildhagen (NO) – drums & percussion
Paal Nilssen-Love (NO) – drums & percussion
Christian Obermayer (NO) – sound engineer
Special guest:
Celio DeCarvalho (BR) - percussion
Paulinho Bicolor (BR) – cuica
Thanks to our Spring Jazz Series sponsors: Dane Arts with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation; HotelRED, Dobhan Restaurant; and Alchemy.
The Large Unit is sponsored by: