Epistrophy Arts is proud to present a rare and monumental collaboration between guitar innovator and avant-garde jazz legend James Blood Ulmer and Scandinavian free-jazz power trio and Austin favorites, The Thing at Austin’s North Door.

Mats Gustafsson – saxophones
Ingebrigt Haker Flaten – bass
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums
James Blood Ulmer – guitar

Mixing jazz with noise, avant-rock and punk, the music of The Thing has been described as ‘garage-jazz’ and ‘impro-punk’. The band, from Norway and Sweden, and Austin was established in the spring of 2000 as a one-off tribute to the music of Don Cherry and has since grown into one of the most successful and hardest working free jazz trios around, traveling all over the world (clad in Ruby’s BBQ T-shirts!). They have performed with guests such as Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O’Rourke, Barry Guy, Thurston Moore and Neneh Cherry,

The Thing will be joined jazz/funk/blues icon James Blood Ulmer. Ulmer has carved a unique trajectory through American music, both through his own extensive catalog and collaborations with artists including Ornette Coleman, Sam Rivers, Rashied Ali and John Zorn, to name a few. Ulmer’s one-of-a-kind guitar-playing style is instantly recognizable.

“… the missing link between Jimi Hendrix and Wes Montgomery on one hand,between P-Funk and Mississippi Fred McDowell on the other.”– Greg Tate, Village Voice

The Thing (…) have returned to their stripped-down, raucous core sound on Boot! The album opens with a version of John Coltrane’s “India” that’s primitive in the best possible way: the original’s hypnotic, mantra-like saxophone line becomes, through Mats Gustafsson’s efforts, a blustery cross between a military fanfare and the cry of some enraged ape. Behind him, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love batter their instruments in a manner more akin to garage rock than free jazz. This is The Thing’s modus operandi, unchanged since their emergence in the 1990s. (Phil Freeman, The Wire)

This project is supported in part by individual contributors, Ruby’s BBQ and the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department