Alyn no geoffrey or JLU but Jon3 has Don Cherry's step-daughter doing the Thing

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Alyn has an interesting mix this afternoon ... and iPlayer

Jon3 digs the Cherrys

Jez Nelson presents an exciting new collaboration between Scandinavian free-jazz trio The Thing and vocalist Neneh Cherry. Cherry's career has spanned a wide range of styles including punk, rap and trip-hop. Her stepfather is the avant-garde cornettist Don Cherry, and The Thing, named after one of his pieces, first formed to reinterpret his music. The group comprises Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and a Norwegian rhythm section of Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love. All three have long experience playing on the European and American improvised scenes with the likes of Ken Vandermark and Peter Brotzmann, and share a love of the high energy of rock and thrash metal that finds a place in their music.

Quite a bit of Don as well as Neneh ...


on the other side ...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Neneh Cherry & The Thing

You'd be forgiven for thinking that a bunch of Scandinavian free-improv heavies sharing the stage with a chart-topping vocalist was some kind of joke. But anyone expecting to poke fun at tonight's collaboration – from the leftfield in more ways than one – will be left with quite a lot of egg on their faces.
Like all the best unlikely couplings, thrashy sax-bass-drums trio The Thing and Neneh Cherry have much more in common than you might think. The Don Cherry factor is the obvious starting point – the avant-garde icon was stepfather to Neneh and the catalyst for The Thing forming in the first place. But in Neneh's conversation with the group's saxophonist Mats Gustafsson before the performance, shared fondness of everything from Lapland to 80s punk emerges.
And the on-stage chemistry that Mats refers to is really apparent in the gig – all the more so because the range of music is amazingly broad. From the opening wail-fest, through the mystical cycling of Don Cherry's Golden Heart, via an MF Doom hip-hop cover to a Cajun party number, the band gives the music a distinctive flavour. Dream Baby Dream is a great example: 'slow' and 'quiet' are not words you'll often find associated with The Thing, but Gustafsson's dirty baritone and Cherry's soulful vocals - a feature throughout the set - make for compelling listening.
Join me for this unusual and memorable performance on Monday 30 July from 11pm, or listen online for seven days after broadcast.

from the newsletter