Paal Nilssen - Love XL Unit
Paal Nilssen - Love’s big band XL Unit performed its first ever concert at Moldejazz in 2013. After that, the band has achieved huge success in five continents and now comes home in an even bigger and more colorful version.
When it comes to combating the natural forces, it is obvious for anyone who is well-versed in Norwegian jazz to include drummer and band leader Paal Nilssen-Love. It is simply difficult to find adjectives that describe Nilssen-Love’s unstoppable musicality, creativity and energy in a comprehensive manner!
In addition to collaborating with big names like James Blood Ulmer, Peter Brøtzmann, Akira Sakata, Arto Lindsay, and bands like Atomic and The Thing, he has channeled a lot of energy and creativity into a big project the Large Unit, which after having performed their first concert at Moldejazz as the 11-man band in 2013 has been diligently touring in Europe, the United States and Japan. The Moldejazz concert in 2013 came as a collaboration with Elbjørg Raknes Sjøbygda Kunstnarhus, where the band practiced before the festival. Nilssen-Love has always had a mix of established names and young talents in the band, and the band has been a motivator and inspirator for the vast number of musicians who have been in the project so far. The band has also given Nilssen-Love the opportunity to demonstrate his calibre as a composer and band leader.
In recent years, Paal's tour plans and discography have been able to track an increasing interest in music and culture from Brazil and Ethiopia, and the Large Unit has been in both Rio De Janeiro and Addis Ababa to do workshops with local musicians and dancers, and perform concerts.
Now Paal collects the thread from these tours, and comes to Moldejazz with an expanded Large Unit, XL Unit, where he has invited three musicians and two dancers from Ethiopia, two Brazilian percussionists in addition to the Large Unit, which now consists of 13 musicians.
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, Ketil Gutvik (NO) - Electric Guitar, Kalle Moberg (NO) - Accordion, Tommi Keranen (FIN) - Electronics, Jon Rune Strøm (NO) - Double and Electric Bass, Christian Meaas Svendsen Drummer & percussion, Paal Nilssen-Love (NO) - drums & percussion, Christian Obermayer (NO) - sound engineer
Special guests:
Paulinho Bicolor (BR) - cuica, Celio DeCarvalho (BR) - Percussion
Melaku Belay (ET) - dancer, Zenash Tsegaye (ET) - dancer, Nardos Tesfaye (ET) - vocal, Fasika Hailu (ET) - krahr (string instrument), Habetamu Yeshambel (ET) - masingo (string instrument), Mesay Abebaye (ET) - kobero (drums)