Monday 21 May 2018, 7.30pm
“When Paal Nilssen-Love and Ken Vandermark take the stage for two uninterrupted sets, you know there's no chance they'll take the easy route. They put themselves on the spot as a duet and as individual performers, asking telling questions about the way their instruments are played; where the boundaries are, sonically, expressively, physically.” – London Jazz News
A (dual) pleasure to welcome back the the sax/drums duo of Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love to OTO. Having played together for more than a decade, the pair continue to use free improvisation to explore all levels of dynamics, density, rhythm, timbre, form and tonality for some of the most intense, exhilarating, and boundary breaking music around.
Vandermark and Nilssen-Love started their collaboration in 2000 when the group School Days was formed. One year later they started FME, a trio with bass player Nate McBride. After this it seemed very natural to define a duo. The first occasion for this format was when they recorded the cd ”Dual Pleasure” in Oslo during the summer of 2002. Shortly after this they performed their first duo concert at Molde International Jazz Festival. “Dual Pleasure” was released by the Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound and has received excellent reviews.
Nilssen-Love has, during the last couple of years, established himself on the international scene as a powerful drummer with high energy and creativity. In 2002 he was "Artist in Residence" at Molde International Jazz Festival, a title Chick Corea and Pat Metheny held in previous years. After 7 days and 9 concerts at the festival, Down Beat stated, "His week at Molde proved a revelation: Nilssen-Love is one of the most innovative, dynamic and versatile drummers in jazz."
Vandermark is also known for the work with his own quintet the Vandermark 5, the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, the Territory Band, Spaceways Inc., and the DKV Trio. In 1999 Vandermark was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, previous recipients of this prize in the field of music include Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton and Max Roach. He has also been was voted ”Talent Deserving Wider Recognition” in the critic's poll of the American jazz magazine Down Beat, both as composer and as a tenor saxophonist, every year since 2000.
“Vandermark can scorch paint with a sax.” – The Guardian
www.kenvandermark.com
Born in Brighton and living in London, John Butcher is a saxophonist whose work ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multi tracked pieces and explorations with feedback, unusual acoustics and non-concert locations. He is well known as a solo performer who attempts to engage with a sense of place. Resonant Spaces, for example, is a collection of performances recorded during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands.
Butcher originally studied Physics, but after publishing a PH.D (1982) on quantum chromodynamics he left academia and took off with music. He has since collaborated with hundreds of artists, some for many decades, including Derek Bailey, Eddie Prévost, Angharad Davies, John Stevens’ Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Okkyung Lee, Andy Moor, Sophie Agnel, Christian Marclay, Pat Thomas, Phil Minton, Rhodri Davies, Tony Buck, Magda Mayas, John Russell, Chris Corsano, Steve Beresford, Ståle Liavik Solberg, and Matthew Shipp.
Additionally he values occasional encounters - with large groups ranging from the WDR Sinfonieorchester (as soloist), and the 20+ piece EX Orkest to duos with Akio Suzuki, Liz Allbee, Keiji Haino, Isabelle Duthois, David Toop, Mariam Rezaei, Fred Frith and Joe McPhee.
Recent compositions include “Fluid Fixations” (an hcmf commission), “Penny Wands” for Futurist Intonarumori, “Good Liquor…” for the London Sinfonietta and “Tarab Cuts” (shortlisted for a British Composer’s Award).
"Over 40 years of sustained performance and publishing, English saxophonist, improvisor and composer John Butcher has shaped much of what soprano and tenor saxophone can do, and what their roles and vocabulary in improvised music might be. I’ve always heard Butcher’s playing as a kind of nose-to-tail saxophony, where the whole instrument from reed-tip to brim of bell is available, accessible and articulate. Few other saxophonists slice as sharply back into the physical history, material (and physics) of the instrument, across its near 200 year history. When Hector Berlioz wrote of his friend Adolphe Sax’s then fresh invention, “the varied beauty of its accent, sometimes serious, sometimes calm, sometimes impassioned, dreamy or melancholic, or vague”, he could have been imagining Butcher's distinctively clean but complex, enquiring soundworld." WIRE - October 2024. The Primer by Seymour Wright
Ståle Liavik Solberg (drums/percussion) has established a base for himself as a central part of Oslo's thriving improvised music scene. Working with ensembles VCDC, Will it float? (with John Russell, Steve Beresford & John Edwards), Silva-Rasmussen-Solberg trio and in duos with Fred Lonberg-Holm and John Russell his open and attentive drumming has received many positive responses from musicians and audiences in both Europe and the USA. Solberg is also known as one of the driving forces behind the series Blow Out! in Oslo, and he curates the festival with the same name together with fellow drummer / percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love.
