The 11-piece Large Unit, led by the astonishing Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, released a fascinating combination of full-ensemble power and intimate subgroup improv conversations with Erta Ale last year.
The follow-up distinctively applies the same resources to Brazilian music, with the band augmented by percussionists Célio de Carvalho and Paulinho Bicolor. Over three long tracks they fire off volleys of multi-percussion commotion between solemnly lamenting or street-strutting written parts for mellow brass and reeds, while reflective passages explore musing solo-sax improv nudged by tuba throbs and brittle drumwork. Jaunty berimbau grooves are enveloped by basement-register tuba murmurs. Hooting avant-funk passages sound like Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time caught up in a Rio street carnival. There’s even some earthily trad-jazzy trumpet blues.
The third section opens with rainforest animal whoopings and chitchat, passes through a strange free-trombone samba and out on a shuffle of flutes and percussion and a floating dreamscape of an ending. It’s uncompromising free-jazz, but the Large Unit’s 40-gig US and European tours last year show how far it travels beyond that loop.
