The Thing are a Norwegian/Swedish

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

trio, consisting of

Mats Gustafsson Mats Olof Gustafsson (born 29 October 1964) is a Swedish free jazz saxophone player. Career Gustafsson came to the attention of lovers of improvised music as part of a duo with Christian Munthe (started in 1986), as member of Gunter Chri ...

(saxophones),

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (born 23 September 1971 in Oppdal, Norway) is a Norwegian bassist active in the jazz and free jazz genres. (in Norwegian) Store Norske Leksikon (in Norwegian) Career Flaten played electric bass in local funk trio ' ...

(double bass), and

Paal Nilssen-Love Paal Nilssen-Love (born 24 December 1974) is a Norwegian drummer and composer in the jazz, free jazz and free improvisation genres. (in Norwegian) Early life Nilssen-Love was born in Molde, Norway. His parents ran a jazz club in Stavanger, and h ...

(drums).

Name

The Thing took their name from a track on

Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...

's 1966 album '' Where Is Brooklyn?''

Performances and recordings

The Thing were established in February 2000 to play a series of concerts in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

and a recording of Don Cherry compositions that was released in Sweden by the label Crazy Wisdom/

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

. Melding German, British and American traditions of

free music Free music or libre music is music that, like free software, can freely be copied, distributed and modified for any purpose. Thus free music is either in the public domain or licensed under a free license by the artist or copyright holder themse ...

, their repertoire has later been collected from various sources such as

James Blood Ulmer James "Blood" Ulmer (born February 8, 1940) is an American jazz, free funk and blues guitarist and singer. Ulmer plays a Gibson Byrdland guitar. His guitar sound has been described as "jagged" and "stinging". His singing has been called "ragg ...

Frank Lowe Frank Lowe (June 24, 1943 – September 19, 2003) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer. Biography Born and brought up in Memphis, Tennessee, Lowe took up the tenor saxophone at the age of 12. As an adult he moved to San Fra ...

PJ Harvey Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined loca ...

White Stripes The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums wi ...

and

Joe McPhee Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone. McPhee grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and is ...

. McPhee was also a participating musician on the ''She Knows...'' album (2001). Other guests who have joined The Thing for recording and performances include

Ken Vandermark Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964) is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compos ...

Otomo Yoshihide is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist. He mainly plays guitar, turntables, and electronics. He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the experimental rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked i ...

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moo ...

, Jim O'Rourke and

Jeb Bishop Jeb Bishop (born 1962) is an American jazz trombone player. He grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and attended Jesse O. Sanderson High School. He has studied music (classical trombone performance) at Northwestern University, engineering and ...

. ''Garage'' was released on the

Smalltown Superjazzz Smalltown Superjazzz is an independent record label based in Oslo, Norway, that concentrates on new forms of jazz. It is a subsidiary of the label Smalltown Supersound. The catalog includes albums by Free Fall, Mats Gustafsson, The Thing See ...

label in 2004. An EP of live material performed with Joe McPhee and

Cato Salsa Experience Cato Salsa Experience was an indie rock band from Oslo, Norway. The group formed around jam sessions at lead singer Cato Thomassen's house. Cato Salsa Experienceat Allmusic.com The group began playing locally and released a vinyl EP before Empero ...

was released in 2005, as well as a live album. 2006 saw the release of ''Action Jazz'', also on Smalltown Superjazz. The group cover material from

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Colle ...

, Lightning Bolt, Yosuke Yamashita and others in addition to original material. The group are the only free jazz ensemble working today who wear stage uniforms. They perform clad in t-shirts from Ruby's Barbecue Restaurant in Austin, Texas. In June 2012 they released the album ''

The Cherry Thing ''The Cherry Thing'' is an album by vocalist Neneh Cherry and jazz trio The Thing, consisting of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. It was recorded in 2011 and released the following yea ...

'', a collaboration with Swedish-British singer

Neneh Cherry Neneh Mariann Karlsson (born 10 March 1964), better known as Neneh Cherry, is a Swedish singer-songwriter, rapper, occasional DJ and broadcaster. Her musical career started in London in the early 1980s, where she performed in a number of punk roc ...

. The album was Cherry's first album as a named leader for 16 years.

Discography

The Thing

*'' The Thing'' (2000) *'' She Knows...'' (with

) (2001) *''

Garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicle ...

'' (2004) *'' Live at Blå'' (2005) *'' Action Jazz'' (2006) *'' Immediate Sound'' (with

) (2007) *'' Now and Forever'' (box set containing '' The Thing'', '' She Knows...'', a new improv session ''Gluttony'' and a live DVD ''Live at Øya 2005 w/ Thurston Moore'') (2007) *'' Bag It!'' (2009) *''

Mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanese b ...

'' (2011) *''Metal!'' (with

Barry Guy Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London) is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras ...

) (2012) *'' Boot!'' (2013) *''Live'' (with

) (2014) *'' Shake'' (2015) *''Baby Talk'' (with

, 2017) *''Again'' (2018)

The Thing with Cato Salsa Experience and Joe McPhee

*'' Sounds Like a Sandwich'' (2005) *'' Two Bands and a Legend'' (2007) *''I See You Baby'' (2007) (EP)

The Thing with Otomo Yoshihide

*'' Shinjuku Crawl'' (2009)

The Thing with Jim O'Rourke

*'' Shinjuku Growl'' (2010)

Neneh Cherry & The Thing

* ''

'' (2012) * '' The Cherry Thing Remixes'' (2012)

References

External links

Official website

English language podcast with The Thing
Russian language translation provided as well. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thing, The Norwegian musical groups Norwegian jazz ensembles Smalltown Supersound artists Universal Music Group artists