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Thing - 2nd LP in Subscription Series

In 2016, we released the Boston Creative Jazz Scene 1970-1983, a compilation spotlighting the often-overlooked progressive jazz environment that thrived in Beantown through the seventies into the eighties. Now, following up on this, we are proud to present a crisp reissue of the eponymous (and sole) album by the Boston jazz-fusion outfit "Thing."

Here's an excerpt from the liner notes written by Uchenna Ikonne:

 “The name Thing… that happened by accident,” Cheatham laughs. “We went into the studio, we recorded some stuff. The person who did the recording had to label the tapes, and we hadn’t really given him any official title for the group or the project. So he just wrote ‘Arni’s Thing’ on the tapes. So when we wanted to do something with the tapes we recorded, we had to think about what to call it. Someone said ‘Why don’t we just call it Arni’s Thing? I said, ‘Nah, take my name off it… Let’s just call it Thing.”

The “thing” on the tapes was documentation of two live sessions by the band, the first having been played on April 30, 1972 at Building 42 in the college city of Cambridge, Mass. The second session was at the Sanders Theatre at Harvard University a week later on May 6, 1972. The music is a searing, searching exploration of communion through the realms of electric jazz, psychedelic rock and throbbing funk, all of it fully composed extemporaneously by Cheatham, Leick, Nowlin, Saltman and Letman, along with guitarist Bob O’Connell, and conguero Dorian McGee.

You can sign up for our subscription series here to receive this LP as well the other LPs in the series includng: Septimus - We Want A Piece of the Pie, Yoruba Singers - Fighting for Survival, and the fourth LP soon to be announced!


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