Exit! cover
Released

On Friday the 13th, 2012, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bassist Johan Berthling, and drummer Andreas Werliin, aka Fire!, already plenty powerful as a trio, decided to see what they could accomplish as a 27-member improvising big band: two dozen musicians (six reeds, five brass, three guitarists, three keyboardists, four bassists, four drummers) and three vocalists, performing a 45-minute epic split into two side-long chunks. There are some fierce solos, but this is no mere slab of blare; it’s a slow-burning groove orchestrated like a 1970s Lalo Schifrin movie score, with poetic lyrics (delivered by Sofia Jernberg) and a four-bass, four-drums pulse like a whale’s heartbeat.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Raw Materials cover

Raw Materials

Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer
Electra cover

Electra

Arild Andersen Group
New Life cover

New Life

Antonio Sánchez
Braggtown cover

Braggtown

Branford Marsalis
Street Priest cover

Street Priest

Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society
Sister cover

Sister

Sonic Youth
I Have the Room Above Her cover

I Have the Room Above Her

Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano
monkey with a gun cover

monkey with a gun

entropic advance
Birth & Rebirth cover

Birth & Rebirth

Max Roach, Anthony Braxton