Erta Ale cover
Released

Despite its name, drummer Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit was relatively compact for a free jazz orchestra, numbering just 11 players including the leader on this 3CD set. It included three brass players (cornet/flugelhorn, trombone, and tuba) and two saxophonists, plus electric guitar, turntable and electronics, and a double rhythm section: two bassists, two drummers. On later releases the group swelled to 15 members, and on one memorable occasion – a collaboration with the Ethiopian group Fendika, with special guest guitarist Terrie Ex – there were 22 people onstage. This set consists of two CDs mixing studio and live material, and a bonus disc documenting a full performance from the Moers Festival. It’s three hours of music in all, and it varies from stomping, romping mass blare to a quiet duet for bass and electronics. You get multiple versions of several compositions so you can compare and contrast, and four versions of a collective improv exercise called “Round About Nothing” that’s radically different every time, but always provides plenty of space for the drummers to go wild.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Ascension cover

Ascension

John Coltrane
The Sky Below cover

The Sky Below

Miles Okazaki
Modern Music cover

Modern Music

Brad Mehldau, Kevin Hays, Patrick Zimmerli
New York Art Quartet cover

New York Art Quartet

New York Art Quartet
Napoli’s Walls cover

Napoli’s Walls

Louis Sclavis
Codebreaker cover

Codebreaker

Matthew Shipp
Cantando cover

Cantando

Jon Fält, Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin
Don’t Fence Me In: The Music of Cole Porter cover

Don’t Fence Me In: The Music of Cole Porter

Colin Towns, Nils Landgren, Bohuslän Big Band
1961 cover

1961

Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Bley, Steve Swallow
Humus cover

Humus

Bojan Z., Tetraband
Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet cover

Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet

Kronos Quartet, Aki Takahashi