This years 2019 edition of the ZomerJazzFietsTour presented a selection of international top drummers, such as Louis Moholo-Moholo, Gerry Hemingway, Michael Vatcher, Han Bennink, Victor de Boo, Aleksandar Skoric, George Hadow and Paal Nilssen-Love. I had the huge pleasure and honor to speak with two of them in Garnwerd, close to the so-called Headquarter of this very special and unique festival.
During an extremely hot afternoon I met Paal Nilsson-Love (NO) after his concert he gave at the church in Oostum with his project “Fish & Steel”. In earlier editions of this festival, Paal Nilssen-Love performed in 2002 with Tobias Delius and Cor Fuhler. In 2012 he played with “Atomic” and in 2016 as part of "The Thing" with Joe McPhee. Paal Nilsson-Love is a drummer most of the time, an improviser, a connector and also a composer.
Mats Gustafsson (SE) once said, he is a “unstopable train of energy”.
Nilssen-Love runs his own record label PNL Records and organizes his own music festival in Norways capital Oslo. His collaboration with the Dutch punk/rock/jazz band “The Ex” brought him several times to Ethiopia, he also works with Arto Lindsay (BR), recorded with “The Thing” and “Neneh Cherry”, collaborated for many years with Peter Brötzmann and the Chicago Tentet, and with many others such as David Murray, Ken Vandermark, Jim O'Rourke, Large Unit, Joe McPhee, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Mats Gustafsson, Otomo Yoshihido, Sten Sandell, Terrie Ex, Frode Gjerstad, Kent Kessler and Akira Sakata. Just to name a few. Paal Nilssen-Love is one of the most active drummers of this planet.
Pat Metheny said, after playing with him at Molde International Jazz Festival: “He is simply one of the best new musicians I’ve heard during the latest years!”
Please enjoy my almost one-hour talk with Paal Nilssen-Love I had in the beautiful livingroom of Suzanne Rohde & John Dohle in Garnwerd, downtown, on saturday August 31 – 2019.
Many thanks to Paal Nilsson-Love for his amazing kindness and his very supportive agent Danielle Oosterop. Many thanks to Marcel Roelofs (chief Zomer Jazz Fiets Tour) for making all this happen. Many thanks to my tiredless crew Maria Palomeque and Siebelt Süßmilch. Many thanks again to Suzanne Rohde and John Dohle for welcoming me and my interview partner in their beautiful home. Many thanks to Bert Dobben for inside news and many thanks to everyone at the ZomerJazzFietsTour 2019! You are all awesome!
Cover picture by Bernd Ihno Eilts/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2019.