Roscoe Mitchell Quartet/Trio/Solo + Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit

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:

Roscoe Mitchell

Roscoe Mitchell is an avant-garde jazz and contemporary music icon, currently serving as the Darius Milhaud Chair of Composition at Mills College (CA). He is a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the Trio Space, and founder of the Creative Arts Collective (MI). He also leads several ensembles. His oeuvre boasts hundreds of albums and compositions and the development of the Percussion Cage, consisting of instruments of worldwide origin and found objects. Mitchell’s honors include a John Cage Award (FOC), multiple grants from National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer and Mutable Music. Last year, Roscoe celebrated the AACM's 50th Anniversary with lectures, exhibitions, concerts and recordings at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, showcasing Mr. Mitchell and his peers. In 2016, Mitchell is redoubling his compositional efforts, beginning with the world premiere of “Conversations for Orchestra... Read More

Jaribu Shahid

Jaribu Shahid is an American jazz bassist. Shahid played in the band Griot Galaxy with Faruq Z. Bey in the 1970s, and became the ensemble's leader in 1984 and continued leading the group in the 1990s. He was associated with the Creative Arts Collective and played in this capacity with Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, and Roscoe Mitchell. He played with Sun Ra in 1978 and worked extensively with Mitchell in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as with Geri Allen and James Carter. He joined the Art Ensemble of Chicago in 2004.

Junius Paul

Junius Paul has established himself as a first call electric and acoustic bassist on the Chicago music scene. Paul was born and raised in the Chicago area and is a graduate of St. Xavier University. He is well-established in many genres, ranging from jazz to hip-hop, house music, funk, classical and gospel, and his passion for music shows consistently in all of his playing. Paul has shared the stage with artists including Wynton Marsalis, Curtis Fuller, Donald Byrd, Fred Anderson, Roscoe Mitchell, Kahil ElZabar, Chico DeBarge, KRS-One, Dee Alexander, Roy Hargrove and Corey Wilkes. He has appeared on audio and DVD recordings by Corey Wilkes, DJ Shannon Harris, the St. Luke COGIC gospel choir, Peven Everett and Kahil El-Zabar. Junius has also performed internationally, at The Southport Weekender Festival in Southport, England, the Sons d’hiver Festival in Paris, France, the Made In Chicago Series in Poznan, Poland, and the Ghana Jazz Festival in Africa.

Vincent Davis

Vincent Davis, born in Chicago is an internationally acclaimed jazz percussionist, composer and teacher. The seed of music was planted in Davis early, growing up in a home filled with the influences of rock, jazz and gospel. In 1979 Davis left Chicago to attend the Milwaukee Conservatory of Music, where his love of jazz and skill at drumming further bloomed and flourished. It was here that Davis met his mentor Manty Ellis. Davis trained and studied with Ellis, primarily focusing on Jazz trap drumming.

Nils Bultmann

Nils Bultmann is a violist, improviser, and composer based in the San Francisco bay area. Active as a performer in the United States and Europe, he plays both classical as well as contemporary repertoire. He is also involved in collaborative projects including dance, video, and avant-garde improvised music. He has generated an expansive body of work in the recording studio, including solo and multi-track viola music as well as collaborative and improvised musical textures. He also writes traditional through-composed works for solo instruments, string quartets, and orchestra.

Nils was born in Houston Texas to a German father and an American mother and was raised in Madison, WI. He also often traveled in Germany. His mother introduced him to music and he began to study viola and piano at age ten. Nils received his B.A. from the University of Madison-Wisconsin on a music scholarship, studying viola performance with Sally Chisholm.

He briefly explored the path of an... Read More

Paal Nilssen-Love

Paal was born in Molde, Norway, Dec 24. 1974. From 1990 on he took an active part in the jazz milieu in Stavanger and joined bands with established musicians such as trumpeter Didrik Ingvaldsen and saxophonist Frode Gjerstad. During his studies at the Jazz department at the University in Trondheim, where the first self initiated bands were established, things developed really fast – and Paal was nationally acknowledged at the age of 20. Paal moved to Oslo in 1996, where he joined and/or took part in the forming of bands like Vindaloo, SAN, Håkon Kornstad Tio, The Quintet and Frode Gjerstad Trio. He later on got more into self initiated projects and collaborations with Swedish musicians, such as pianist Sten Sandell and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson.

Being active in several bands at the same time has always been Paal’s deliberate working method. Today Paal’s portfolio includes The Thing, the Large Unit, Frode Gjerstad Trio, Sten Sandell Trio, Scorch Trio, various duo projects... Read More

Jon Rune Strøm

Born in Namsos, Norway, on January 29th 1985, he has emerged on the jazz and improv-scene as a bass player with extremely high energy and stamina. Taking inspiration from William Parker, Jimmy Garrison, Johnny Dyani and Gary Peacock among others, he represents a new generation of Norwegian bass players. Jon Rune works regularly with bands like Universal Indians, Frode Gjerstad Trio, Friends & Neighbors, All Included and his own Jon Rune Strøm Quintet.

Anders Svanoe

Appearing on ECM Records, Pi Recordings and Irabbagast Records, saxophonist Anders Svanoe has brought new creativity and vigor to the baritone saxophone. As leader of the Anders Svanoe Trio, Double Trio, Latin Jazz Quintet, and member of The Transatlantic Art Ensemble (Roscoe Mitchell, Evan Parker, Craig Taborn, Barry Guy), The Roscoe Mitchell Big Band, The Cab Calloway Orchestra and numerous other bands throughout his carreer, Neil Tesser, author of The Playboy Guide to Jazz says, “Svanoe presents originality within the now decades-old tradition of free improvisation – a welcome, promising, and especially inventive presence as the music finds a new audience.”

As a member of The Transatlantic Art Ensemble, Anders recorded two noteworthy ECM recordings in Munich in 2004 (The Transatlantic Art Ensemble is Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory and Evan Parker’s Electro Acoustic Ensemble combined into one “all star” group). One of those recordings, Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2... Read More

John Christensen

John Christensen began his bass studies with Chris Wood and continued his formal education by attending Berklee College of Music summer sessions and finally attending University of North Texas music program. After deciding on a more personalized education program John moved to San Francisco to begin gigging and study with renowned educator Dick Hindman. In the Bay Area John played and recorded with numerous bands including his own band Dam East, Mark Levine, Victoria Williams, Slide Five, Scott Amendola, Hal Stein, and The New Morty Show among others. Since Moving to Madison in 1999 John has played with numerous local groups including Alison Margaret, Jan Wheaton, Harmonious Wail, Patrick Breiner, Dave Stoler, Kyle Henderson, Paul Hastil, Anders Svanoe and Gerri DeMaggio. John continues learning and growing in 2018 through Recording and performing collaborations with Louka Patenaude, Anthony Deutsch, Jamie Breiwick, Devin Drobka, Tony Barba and has shared the stage with such... Read More

Michael Brenneis

Michael Brenneis has been an essential mover in the Madison improvised music community for twenty years. From his early work with Tomato Box and The Active Percussion Duo, to later projects such as Post Consumer Gnarl, The Ten Sleeps Trio, The Improvisor’s Workbench, and Executive Tea Set, he is consistently demolishing the boundaries of musical convention. In 2018 Michael was awarded an Artistic Development Grant by the Greater Madison Jazz Consortium to compose, record and premiere a large ensemble work entitled Plutonium. Also in 2018 Michael is recording a monthly series of improvised duets under the handle Deeds & Endeavors Part One, available on bandcamp: https://deedsone.bandcamp.com/. Michael also collaborates with many other Madison groups including The New Breed Jazz Jam, The Alison Margaret Jazz Quintet, The Anders Svanoe Double Trio, and Major Vistas.

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Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.

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Roscoe Mitchell Quartet/Trio/Solo + Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit

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