Tuesday, June 12th, 2018
Timucua Arts Foundation and The Civic Minded 5 present
Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit
Timucua Arts
2000 South Summerlin Ave, Orlando, Fl 32806
7:00 pm doors, 7:30 concert
Reserve a seat $10-$20 suggested donation
Click to watch Large Unit live via the Timucua YouTube.
Large Unit is twelve Nordic musicians led by the high-energy phenom drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. Ensemble musical motifs with alternately elegiac, squelchy, and emphatic improvisations interlock in a shifting, sonic poetry. It’s a jazz big band if you can agree that the crunchy, tabletop electronics of Lasse Marhaug, an accordionist, and two bassists who veer into Post-Punk territory can coexist with the traditions of the Swing. Countenance these elements colliding with your Ellington or Gil Evans or not, this is an exemplar cm5 spectacle.
Paal Nilssen-Love has recorded and performed with the titans of modern jazz: Joe McPhee, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Peter Brötzmann, and has stepped outside the classification of “jazz” to work with Arto Lindsay, Norwegian rock band Cato Salsa Experience and an extraordinary session with pop/jazz/hip-hop pioneer Neneh Cherry. This is Paal’s third Civic Minded 5 visit, first here with Chicagoans Dave Rempis and Fred Lomberg-Holm as Ballister, then with the barnstorming Nordic trio The Thing.
Once experienced, Nilssen-Love’s drumming will impress as a fusion of the late 1960’s/1970’s Free Music Production-era with a net-fishing swath of Easter Eggs from non-jazz idioms of underground music. By extension, the composition style of Large Unit follows suit. The jazz orchestra coloration is sometimes in the 1970’s realm of Sam Rivers’ Crystals, Frank Lowe Orchestra or Karl Berger’s ring-leading of the Creative Music Orchestra. Sometimes, there’s an opera glasses’ distance nod to the Swing era, tacking even further left of Sun Ra’s 1980’s fascination. The outsider elements of electronics, Nordic accordion explorations, and rumbling dialogue from mirroring basses and kit drummers are not a gimmick. They are at first beguiling, then invited in to the compositional ecosystem by a listener as the plays stack up. This is what hooked the cm5 booking circle.
This will also be the second cm5 visit for bandleader/trumpeter Thomas Johansson and reedman Kristoffer Alberts of Cortex. Their 2017 visit to Gallery At Avalon Island served notice of another fully formed, sonic gang of four out of Norway. It’s a bit hard to imagine the live experience of a twelve-strong set of these folks straddling a line between heroes and villains but you won’t have to for long. Turn theory in praxis on June 12th.
Take part in the Timucua instant arts community created at each event by appearing willing – described by composer Anthony Braxton as the “friendly experiencer.” Timucua encourages a small plate dish and a bottle of wine for community distribution. We’ll see you there.
