The Thing with Ken Vandermark by Mizohu Yabe

We’ve been slacking on posting avantjazz for a while since I haven’t found anything notable to listen these days (care to help? comment pls.) so here’s 2006’s Action Jazz by Mats Gustafsson’s The Thingon Smalltown Supersound. Their eighth studio album is a chaotic tornado which defined Allaboutjazz summed as “rugby match played inside a liberated zoo” by . Joined by his veteran drummer Paal Nilssen-Love (also his partner from the Original Science collective) and bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten there’s a fair share of improvised madness lead by Gustafsson’s squealing sax and a frenetic rhythm section on original compositions like the closer “Strayhorn” by Mats Gustafsson and covers of Ornette Coleman, Cato Salsa Experience and Yosuke Yamashita. The Thing comes along as the Swedish equivalent of a power trio without guitars, just think about the noise they could make live!. Check out around 5:00 minutes of The Nut / The Light total bliss after a mindblowing 2 minutes.

The Thing – Chiasma
The Thing – The Nut / The Light