Thing Thing

In 2016, Cultures of Soul Records released Boston
Creative Jazz Scene 1970-1983, a groundbreaking
compilation spotlighting the often-overlooked
progressive jazz environment that thrived in Beantown
through the seventies into the eighties. Now, following
up on this groundbreaking work, Cultures of Soul is
proud to present a crisp reissue of the eponymous (and
sole) album by the Boston jazz-fusion outfit THING.
Formed by confederates who met at the Berklee School
of Music and led by the creatively restless saxophonist
and jazz educator Arni Cheatham, Thing were a regular
fixture in Boston clubs in the seventies, as comfortable
plying the rock and funk idioms as they were in
jazz. Their 1972 LP documents two of their live sets,
showcasing their simmering, funky and spiritual
freeform jazz, very much in the vein of early seventies
jazz-rock experiments by Miles Davis, Weather Report
and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
The two suites featured on the album are fully
improvised, featuring the musicians spontaneously
generating and developing musical motifs in real time,
bouncing ideas off each other in a communion that
is equally suitable for meditating...or dancing like
tomorrow will never arrive.
THING is a worthy glimpse into the experimentation and
adventurousness that made the seemingly uptight city
of Boston a magnet for musical mavericks.