Paal Nilssen-Love balances subtlety with full power

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      For me, one of the undeniable highlights of the past decade was catching the Scandinavian improv quintet Atomic in an oceanside lodge on one of the Gulf Islands. The beauty of the setting coupled with the ferocity of the music made for an unforgettable experience—and even if my companion at the time compared it to being “scrubbed all over with steel wool”, she meant it in the best possible way.

      Atomic’s drummer, Paal Nilssen-Love, has no difficulty interpreting that as praise. “Some people are into that,” he says with a laugh, checking in from his home in Oslo. Those who are will get three chances for further exfoliation during the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, with Nilssen-Love presiding over a virtual showcase of Nordic improv talent at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre. The occasion is nominally the local debut of his Large Unit, an 11-piece juggernaut of musicians from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, but it’s also going to be much more than that.

      “When I put this together there were two already-established trios within the group, so my idea was, ‘Okay, for sure I’ll take advantage of that in the music and the compositions,’ ” Nilssen-Love explains. “But also on the road we could say, ‘Let’s have a set with this trio, and one with that trio, and then have the full ensemble.’ In Vancouver, we have the whole day, so we can present established groups within the group as well as other configurations.”

      The plan is for Nilssen-Love and his colleagues to play in various small-band settings at 1:30 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. before convening the full ensemble at 5 p.m. And the payoff includes getting to know the various musicians, most of whom are new to the West Coast, as individuals before hearing what they can do as a collective.

      “Hopefully, people will come, stay the whole day, and hear a very big, big variety of what the group and its members can sound like,” the drummer explains. The concert should also be a chance to hear a different side of Nilssen-Love’s music. His past Vancouver appearances, especially with Mats Gustafsson’s free-jazz “cover band”, the Thing, have tilted toward the noisy and energetic side of the spectrum, but his new project will allow for a more ruminative approach.

      “I like the energy, and I like when there’s some sweat going on,” the drummer explains. “But it’s funny with this band: there can be gigs where there’s some sweat, but I’m not drenched in sweat, like if I’m playing with the Thing or in a duo with Peter [Brötzmann] or Ken [Vandermark] or whatever. I do want to have some very quiet parts in the music, for sure, and there are. The tunes also invite a more subtle kind of playing, but I want people to put 100-percent energy into it, whether it’s a ballad or a full-on thing.

      “It’s not a sort of full-on racket for an hour; I’m not interested in that,” he adds. “I want to bring out as much variety as you can with 11 different instruments—and, not least, the 11 different personalities that will be on-stage.”

      Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large and Small Units play the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre next Saturday (June 27) as part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

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