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
Multiplicity: Leave the Door Open cover

Multiplicity: Leave the Door Open

Joel Harrison, Anupam Shobhakar
The Magic Triangle cover

The Magic Triangle

Famoudou Don Moye, Joseph Jarman, Don Pullen
Stones cover

Stones

Mats Gustafsson, Colin Stetson
Technodelic cover

Technodelic

Yellow Magic Orchestra
Crazy People Music cover

Crazy People Music

Branford Marsalis
A Love Supreme cover

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane
Spirit Groove cover

Spirit Groove

David Murray, Kahil El'Zabar
Petit Oiseau cover

Petit Oiseau

William Parker Quartet