Things Of This Nature

I believe Things of This Nature is the future of this music. Which is an easy thing to say because this music is this music. Easy things to say are, however, often true. I think.

There is something going on here which, I'll say it, cats are not doing these days, but also they weren't doing in any days. This stuff is grabbing everything these four can from the tradition and taking it along with them into new territory that could not have been explored before. One has to have childhood memories of the Obama administration to create some of this music. Idk why, it's just what it is.

It is the combination of this acceptance of the historical imperative to uncover and reveal the newly possible sounds of one's time, with their clear, perhaps proudly transparent, roots in the stylistic developments of so much music that has come before that gives me the grounding for my subjective & factual claim that this band is the future of this music. I won't name names but, if you don't hear the roots, this is your message that they are there, and they cross decades, and they are deep.

I have seen Things of This Nature play...multiple times. It has been said that I have been at least tied for their top fan, at least at some point. Rumor has it that I have schemed about how to join the band, or perhaps considered poaching them to be my quintet. Needless to say, I have an emotional memory of this music, these songs, this playing. And what struck me first, and still does every time I hear them to this day, is the combination of tightness and expressiveness they manage to deploy every time. It is, to me, the defining characteristic of this sound, at least in the time-space context we are in. And I believe to be able to be tight and expressive allows one to let their music be fun. And 'fun' might be one of the most universally agreed upon defining traits of Things of This Nature. They utilize it at will, when for many trying to do this music fun is an afterthought, a pleasant surprise, or even a byproduct. I am one of the many, and I am grateful this band gives me the perspective to see that.

Back to the note on 'this music'. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who says 'free jazz' anymore. You know what I'm saying? Hopefully people are checking out this record far enough in the future you don't. When I have to succinctly label the music I play I say free jazz. Sometimes that's more accurate than other times, but I say it because it's at least always what I want to be playing. I look at the Ornette record from 1961 under that name and I want to be making whatever would be coming from that, over half a century later. Now I have never heard any member of this band say those words out loud, and I don't want to put words in their mouth. But for me, as a proud free jazz enjoyer and aspiring practitioner, I'm grateful to have another great record in this style to check out, study, return to.

I am so grateful to be living at the same time as this band. To be in the same city as them. To work with them. To be their friend. Their coworker. Their colleague and comrade. Above all, if there's one thing this album makes me feel it's excited. Excitement! How rarely many of us feel that these days. We all who play this music have a lot to learn from these four.

Selendis Sebastian Alexander Johnson, 2025