''The Thing'' is an album by saxophonist

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 ...

, bassist

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

and drummer

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 ...

, who then took the album title as the name of their trio. The album was recorded in February 2000 and released that year by Crazy Wisdom, part of

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 ...

Recording and music

The album was recorded on 10 and 11 February 2000, in Atlantis Studios, Stockholm. Four of the six tracks are interpretations of compositions by

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 ...

Releases

The album was first released in 2000 by Crazy Wisdon, part of Universal Group.In ''Now and Forever''

iner notes Iner or INER may refer to: * Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, or INER * Iner Souster FemBots are a Canadian indie rock band from Toronto formed in 1998. FemBots are known for their unique sound of combining instrumental everyday items, junk ...

Smalltown Superjazz. p. 5. It was also included in the box set ''Now and Forever'' in 2007.

Reception

''The Thing'' received a positive review from ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...

'', which described it as "A great modern free-jazz record".Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008) ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings''. Penguin. pp. 618–619. . The

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

reviewer summarised that "Gustafsson's furious and dense delivery receives great backing from Håker Flaten, who moves effortlessly from pizzicato to arco, and Nilssen-Love, who has the necessary energy to sustain the saxophonist's sonic onslaught", but criticised the performances on one track as "self-indulgence".

Track listing

#"Awake Nu" (

) – 5:06 #"Mopti" (Cherry) – 11:35 #"Cherryco" (Cherry) – 8:45 #"Ode to Don" (

) – 3:37 #"The Art of Steve Roney – Smilin'" (Gustafsson, Flaten, Nilssen-Love) – 2:38 #"Trans-Love Airways" (Cherry) – 19:17

Personnel

– tenor sax, alto sax *

– double bass *

– drums, percussion

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thing 2000 debut albums Free jazz albums The Thing (jazz band) albums