---

Large Unit leader Paal Nilssen-Love contacted the cm5’s Jim Ivy about tacking Orlando on their mostly-routed 2016 North American tour. We’re assuming another concert presenter dropped out. It was a few months out. No big. Find the venue to match the date, thirteen or so members, a bunch of equipment to provide, and they wanted to sleep somewhere. The Civic Minded 5 Party Planning Committee couldn’t pull it off- like Phyllis Vance whiffing on finding an anti-gravity machine on eight hours notice.

Then came 2018 Large Unit America. Our prospective concert date in Orlando kept shifting around like 43 ducking the Iraqi journalist’s flung shoes. Several cm5 representatives and the Timucua Arts Executive Director met with Large Unit’s leader- we kid you not- in a cold tent early on a Sunday morning, eight-hundred and fifty miles away from Orlando- still hammering out some critical logistics three months before Large Unit made their Orlando appearance.

Stream this concert. A solid percentage of the crackle in the room that night will come into your living space. We are quite proud of this one. There was a lot of everything to manage. Big band isn’t quite the the most accurate description here. Basie’s five saxophones, four trumpet and four trombones plus rhythm players? Rewire with two drummers, two bassists, accordion, and a table full of 50 cycle squelchy electronic devices. We’ve subsequently come to understand what Large Unit really is- Paal Nilssen-Love’s assemblage of thirteen unique Scandinavian creators and bandleaders. There are many fascinating recordings to investigate if you make a forensic disassembly of Large Unit.