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
Fast Last! cover

Fast Last!

Lester Bowie
First Meeting: Live in London, Vol. 1 cover

First Meeting: Live in London, Vol. 1

Michael Janisch, Dan Tepfer, Lee Konitz, Jeff Williams
Dance of the Evil Toys cover

Dance of the Evil Toys

Tarbaby, Oliver Lake
Live in Berlin ‘71 cover

Live in Berlin ‘71

Fred Van Hove, Han Bennink, Albert Mangelsdorff, Peter Brötzmann
Disrespectful cover

Disrespectful

Tim Lefebvre, JZ Replacement
Live / Shapeshifter cover

Live / Shapeshifter

Hamid Drake, In Order to Survive, William Parker, Cooper-Moore, Rob Brown
Black Hole cover

Black Hole

Full Blast
Town Hall 1972 cover

Town Hall 1972

Anthony Braxton
Larkin’s Jazz cover

Larkin’s Jazz

Various Artists
Birth & Rebirth cover

Birth & Rebirth

Max Roach, Anthony Braxton