The Thing
The band:
- Mats Gustaffson (saxophones),
- Ingerbrigt Hacker-Flaten (double bass),
- Paal Nilssen-love (percussion),
- Featured guest: Joe McPhee.
Photo by Peter Gannushkin
The Thing, a power trio established in the spring of 2000, brought together several musical styles with a very high energy result. Influenced by various traditions of free music derived from Germany, England and America, these influences are more likely felt than heard. When the trio started out, their book contained mainly tunes by Don Cherry, hence the group’s name taken from one of his compositions. Since 2001, with Joe McPhee's participation as a frequent guest, the group’s repertoire has included numerous free jazz standards by David Murray, Frank Lowe, Ornette Coleman and Norman Howard, among others.
The group's enthusiasm for rock music has expanded the book to include tunes by PJ Harvey, The White Stripes, The Sonics and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. This is just an example of how close musical styles are today, how similar the energy is and can be and how much today's audience is melded together, devoted to creative music.