Latest in the News

Last week marked the release of the Barcode Quartet's live album, recorded during the group's Brazilian Tour in August 2015 at the Jazz na Fábrica Festival in São Paulo.

The FreeJazzBlog reviewed Steve Swell’s latest releases 'Live in Copenhagen' (featuring his trio with Peter Brötzmann & Paal Nilssen-Love), and 'The Chicago Plan' (together with Gebhard Ullmann, Fred Longberg-Holm and Michael Zerang), giving them 4 stars.

Selected Tracks 2013-2017 is now available for pre-order from PNL Records. As the title suggests, this sample CD features a best of selection chronicling Large Unit's first five years since the band's 'First Blow' at the Molde Jazzfestival in 2013. The first 2 tracks are exclusive compositions from the upcoming album "Fluku" — PNL038, to be released later this fall, and 4 tracks chosen from their first four recordings. Partial reviews from those albums — ANA, LARGE UNIT 2015, ERTA ALE (Bonus Disc), and FIRST BLOW — follow below.

We have been hinting at some big news, and here it is! So very excited to welcome to the Kato Bookbird roster one of our favorite big bands in the scene right now — The Large Unit — Paal Nilssen Love's biggest and most ambitious ensemble to date which started life at the Molde Jazzfestival in 2013 and has since then toured Norway and played Festivals all over Europe, Canada, Brazil, and the United States.

2016 was a great year for creative music! Thank you to all our amazing musicians for inspiring us daily, our prestigious presenters and venerable venues we have had the pleasure to work with in the last twelve months, the audiences for checking out the music and attending the shows, and our partners & funders all of whom without which we could not do what we do. We wish you all a happy and joyful holiday season. — The Bookbirds

More than 10 years of partnership between American trombonist, composer Steve Swell and German tenor saxophonist, bass clarinetist and composer Gebhard Ullmann after their successful first collaboration, The Ullmann/Swell Quartet featuring bassist Hill Greene and drum legend Barry Altschul continues now with a new version of the quartet featuring renowned Chicagoans, Michael Zerang, drums, percussion and Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello.