A Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love pairing – and this occasion marks their first-ever tour of North America and Canada – promises to be an exhilarating, if not dizzying, listening experience. As is evident in their past efforts together, Vandermark and Nilssen-Love’s programs vary greatly in texture and mood – ranging from lung-bursting ferocity to chamberish solemnity, while also rarely failing to realize a good opportunity to get funky.
As Rex Butters of All About Jazz noted, the duo simply creates too much music for only two people. It is, however, a variety sustained by excellence, as Vandermark and Nilssen-Love are world-class improvisers. What it adds up to is an approach that is both absorbing and unique, and a musical performance that will be hugely compelling from start to finish.
Ken Vandermark, a multi-reedist, composer, MacArthur Fellow, and community organizer, has poured his energy back into the vibrant Chicago jazz scene where he rose to acclaim. In 1996, Vandermark and writer John Corbett began organizing the “Wednesday Night Jazz Series” at the Empty Bottle, which brought musicians from across North America and Europe to Chicago audiences on a weekly basis for nearly a decade. Similarly, beginning in April of 2006, Vandermark has co-directed (with Mitch Cocanig) the “Immediate Sound Series” at the Hideout.
Yet despite his accomplishments as an organizational leader, it is Vandermark’s massive body of work as a composer and improviser that has earned him such widespread renown. The Vandermark 5, perhaps his principal creative outlet, has captivated the international jazz community for well over a decade with its thrilling live performances and nearly annual recording reports. Vandermark’s other significant ensembles, which include the DKV Trio, the NRG Ensemble, the Frame Quartet, and Spaceways Incorporated featuring Hamid Drake and Nate McBride, to name a few, have further established Vandermark as one of the world’s most committed and prolific bandleaders. Truly, any one of Vandermark’s working groups ably represents the adventurous spirit and innovative drive of his generation of jazz improvisers.
Vandermark did not play with Stavanger-drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, however, until 2000. Their lasting collaboration began with the formation of the ensemble School Days, and soon carried over to the trio FME, which also includes bass player Nate McBride. For Vandermark and Nilssen-Love the chemistry was immediately apparent, and it was only natural to transition into the duo format. They first explored this setting in 2002, recording the powerful, Dual Pleasure, for Oslo’s smalltownsupersound label. For good measure they did it again a year later, releasing the two-disc set Dual Pleasure 2. Since then they have worked together in several memorable contexts, including The Thing with Mats Gustafsson and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, Powerhouse Sound, and Fire Room.
But something more must be said of Nilssen-Love. Indeed it seems hardly enough can be said about the man. Simply, he must now be considered among the very finest of improvisatory percussionists. He is a wonder. His breathtaking technique, which must be seen to be fully appreciated, is likely without peer in this generation. His dexterity around the kit is truly awesome. Perhaps only a small handful of drummers in the music’s history have been capable of performing in extended contexts with such strength, fluency, and inventiveness.
Nilssen-Love’s first public duet with Vandermark came at the 2002 Molde International Jazz Festival, at which an awed Dan Quelette of Down Beat appropriately noted: “His week at Molde proved a revelation: Nilssen-Love is one of the most innovative, dynamic and versatile drummers in jazz!” Similarly, as Pat Matheny noted after performing with Nilssen-Love at that very same festival: “He is simply one of the best new musicians I’ve heard during the latest years!”
Fortunately for us, the duo setting may be the ultimate format to represent both Nilssen-Love’s and Vandermark’s extraordinary gifts. In many respects, it releases Nilssen-Love and Vandermark from any potential restraints, allowing them to create music that is riveting for both its conception and execution.
As is noted on Vandermark’s website, their musical approach in the duo context is “ferocious in its intensity, a stylistic maelstrom that combines extreme rhythmic velocity with formal deconstruction and re-assembly.” And it continues, “Vandermark’s logical lines stir the flow of energy and though tonal and rhythmic patterns/structures appear, the duo does not seek simple solutions. This is raw music of brutal beauty, music which becomes more exhilarating as you allow it take control of body and mind.”
Or perhaps more succinctly, as critics Brian Morton and the late Richard Cook wrote, “If you aren’t tuning in, right now, why on earth not?”
- Peter Walton
