MEDESKI, MARTIN & WOOD
''FREE MAGIC: LIVE''
SEPTEMBER 25 2012
66:45
1/Doppler
Chris Wood/14:36
2/Blues for Another Day
John Medeski/14:15
3/Free Magic/Ballade in C Minor, "Vergessene Seelen"
Billy Martin / John Medeski / Chris Wood/12:16
4/Where's Sly?
John Medeski/16:12
5/Nostalgia in Times Square/Angel Race
Charles Mingus / Sun Ra/9:26
Billy Martin /Drums, Percussion
John Medeski /Melodica, Piano, Prepared Piano
Chris Wood /Bass
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
It's hard to believe that after more than two decades together, Medeski, Martin & Wood haven't released an acoustic trio album. Free Magic remedies that. The set was recorded during their 2007 acoustic tour. There are five tunes in this hour-plus set; four are originals. Chris Wood's "Doppler" (a studio version appeared on 20 [available on iTunes]) commences as a rhythmic improv with Billy Martin playing balafon (an African cousin to the xylophone) with John Medeski on a toy piano and a melodica, and Wood bowing his upright. The pace gradually increases before a rhythmically repetitive motif introduces itself. After vamping on for a minute, the track shifts gears and becomes a jumping, funky, soul-jazz piano trio tune that suggests, in equal parts, the Impulse-era trios of Ahmad Jamal, and Les McCann's and Ramsey Lewis' mid-'60s groove fests. "Blues for Another Day" begins as a muscular improvisation with that suggests the harmonic nuances of Jaki Byard and the large block chord architectures of Andrew Hill before it just stops. It restarts as a shimmering, droning blues that builds in intensity; Wood's 3/4 walking on the riff asserts force. Medeski's bright gospel chops intersperse with hard bop as Martin double-, then triple-times the band, with constant motion on the ride cymbal. While the prepared piano in the title track ushers in a percussion improv -- even Wood's bass feels played like a drum -- it eventually gives way to "Ballade in C Minor, 'Vergesseene Seelen'," that evokes the feeling of an Asian folk tune before Wood's Hofner violin bass offers greater contrast, alternating Middle Eastern scalar and Western rock figures. Martin's shuffle pushes him along in assent and Medeski accents the spaces. "Where's Sly" is pure jazz piano magic that moves through various labyrinthine corridors of harmonic dialogue via lyric and rhythmic invention to become its own post-bop move. The closer is a hard-swinging medley of Charles Mingus' "Nostalgia in Times Square" and Sun Ra's "Angel Race." MMW build a solid bridge between the tunes with a Latin groove, making them natural hard bopping companions in the vanguard. Free Magic is more than just another listing in the MMW's CV; it's a document which reveals that at the heart of all the electronically driven funk, groove, and experimentation, these cats are all superior jazz musicians who not only understand the history and vocabulary of the piano trio, but also move it forward into startling new territory.
BIOGRAPHY
by Jesse Jarnow
A group that effortlessly straddles the gap between avant-garde improvisation and accessible groove-based jazz, Medeski, Martin & Wood have simultaneously earned standings as relentlessly innovative musicians and as an enormously popular act. Emerging out of the New York downtown scene in the early '90s, MMW soon set out on endless cross-country tours before returning home to Manhattan to further refine their sound through myriad influential experimentations. Each of the musicians -- keyboardist John Medeski, drummer/percussionist Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood -- had crossed paths throughout the '80s, playing with the likes of John Lurie, John Zorn, and Martin mentor Bob Moses. In 1991, the trio officially convened for an engagement at New York's Village Gate. Soon, the group was rehearsing in Martin's loft, writing, and then recording 1992's self-released Notes from the Underground. As the group began to tour, escaping the supportive though insular New York music community, Medeski -- a former child prodigy -- switched to a Hammond B-3 organ rather than a grand piano.
Gramavision released It's a Jungle in Here in 1993, which featured horn arrangements by future Sex Mob founder (and pan-scenester) Steven Bernstein. The medley of Thelonious Monk's "Bemsha Swing" and Bob Marley's "Lively Up Yourself" spoke volumes about what the band was attempting to accomplish. Friday Afternoon in the Universe, widely considered the band's breakthrough record, further continued the push toward groove-oriented accessibility, a move that peaked with the group's 1996 Rykodisc debut, Shack-Man (recorded entirely in the band's practice shack in the Maui jungle). By 1996, through a combination of endless touring and two widely circulated live collaborations with Phish, the group caught on in the burgeoning jam band scene, where they have continued to draw the bulk of their audience outside of New York.
Late in 1996, the group began a public return to its avant-garde roots, hosting a series of weekly "shack parties" at New York's Knitting Factory that featured collaborations with many musicians, including Vernon Reid and DJ Logic; the latter would soon become the group's unofficial fourth member. MMW issued the extremely free (and utterly beautiful) Farmer's Reserve on their own Indirecto imprint in 1997, a series of improvisations recorded at the Shack. Logic soon joined the band on the road, and MMW prepared to record Combustication, their first effort for Blue Note, as well as their first full-length collaboration with producer Scott Harding. In 2000, MMW truly came out as leaders with a pair of releases -- the live acoustic Tonic (recorded at the New York City club of the same name) and the electric The Dropper (recorded at the band's newly christened Shacklyn Studios in the trendy DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn) -- as well as an acclaimed Halloween performance at Manhattan's Beacon Theater. The Dropper featured Harding's gritty production, as well as appearances by Sun Ra alum Marshall Allen. In 2006, the group released Out Louder, an album that saw the trio collaborate with John Scofield. Their music was also featured on Grey's Anatomy.
Radiolarians I, the first of three loosely linked albums, appeared in the fall of 2008 on the group's own Indirecto Records imprint. Radiolarians II and III followed a year later, as did the trio's box set entitled Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set, containing the trilogy, a disc of remixes by celebrated DJs, a live CD, a double LP chosen from the three original albums, and a DVD documentary shot by Martin entitled Fly in a Bottle. At this stage of the band's nearly two-decade career, MMW's reputation has indeed achieved massive proportions.
As they always have, the three core bandmembers contribute to numerous other recording projects, both as sidemen and leaders. They are also recognized for carving paths that other musicians have followed -- for example, their rise in popularity contributed to a renaissance in B-3-based organ trios, and although many groups had played with DJs before them, MMW's performances with DJ Logic made it downright fashionable. And while still considered an "alternative" jazz group, Medeski, Martin & Wood continue to draw larger audiences than many of their mainstream counterparts. In 2011, MSMW Live: In Case the World Changes Its Mind was released by Indirecto Records. The double-length set was culled from the Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood 2006 world tour; its contents reflect material off Scofield's A Go Go and MSMW’s studio offering Out Louder. They also released 20, a collection of new songs and previously unrecorded older material. In 2012, MMW issued Free Magic, a live document of tunes taken from their 2007 acoustic tour.
''FREE MAGIC: LIVE''
SEPTEMBER 25 2012
66:45
1/Doppler
Chris Wood/14:36
2/Blues for Another Day
John Medeski/14:15
3/Free Magic/Ballade in C Minor, "Vergessene Seelen"
Billy Martin / John Medeski / Chris Wood/12:16
4/Where's Sly?
John Medeski/16:12
5/Nostalgia in Times Square/Angel Race
Charles Mingus / Sun Ra/9:26
Billy Martin /Drums, Percussion
John Medeski /Melodica, Piano, Prepared Piano
Chris Wood /Bass
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
It's hard to believe that after more than two decades together, Medeski, Martin & Wood haven't released an acoustic trio album. Free Magic remedies that. The set was recorded during their 2007 acoustic tour. There are five tunes in this hour-plus set; four are originals. Chris Wood's "Doppler" (a studio version appeared on 20 [available on iTunes]) commences as a rhythmic improv with Billy Martin playing balafon (an African cousin to the xylophone) with John Medeski on a toy piano and a melodica, and Wood bowing his upright. The pace gradually increases before a rhythmically repetitive motif introduces itself. After vamping on for a minute, the track shifts gears and becomes a jumping, funky, soul-jazz piano trio tune that suggests, in equal parts, the Impulse-era trios of Ahmad Jamal, and Les McCann's and Ramsey Lewis' mid-'60s groove fests. "Blues for Another Day" begins as a muscular improvisation with that suggests the harmonic nuances of Jaki Byard and the large block chord architectures of Andrew Hill before it just stops. It restarts as a shimmering, droning blues that builds in intensity; Wood's 3/4 walking on the riff asserts force. Medeski's bright gospel chops intersperse with hard bop as Martin double-, then triple-times the band, with constant motion on the ride cymbal. While the prepared piano in the title track ushers in a percussion improv -- even Wood's bass feels played like a drum -- it eventually gives way to "Ballade in C Minor, 'Vergesseene Seelen'," that evokes the feeling of an Asian folk tune before Wood's Hofner violin bass offers greater contrast, alternating Middle Eastern scalar and Western rock figures. Martin's shuffle pushes him along in assent and Medeski accents the spaces. "Where's Sly" is pure jazz piano magic that moves through various labyrinthine corridors of harmonic dialogue via lyric and rhythmic invention to become its own post-bop move. The closer is a hard-swinging medley of Charles Mingus' "Nostalgia in Times Square" and Sun Ra's "Angel Race." MMW build a solid bridge between the tunes with a Latin groove, making them natural hard bopping companions in the vanguard. Free Magic is more than just another listing in the MMW's CV; it's a document which reveals that at the heart of all the electronically driven funk, groove, and experimentation, these cats are all superior jazz musicians who not only understand the history and vocabulary of the piano trio, but also move it forward into startling new territory.
BIOGRAPHY
by Jesse Jarnow
A group that effortlessly straddles the gap between avant-garde improvisation and accessible groove-based jazz, Medeski, Martin & Wood have simultaneously earned standings as relentlessly innovative musicians and as an enormously popular act. Emerging out of the New York downtown scene in the early '90s, MMW soon set out on endless cross-country tours before returning home to Manhattan to further refine their sound through myriad influential experimentations. Each of the musicians -- keyboardist John Medeski, drummer/percussionist Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood -- had crossed paths throughout the '80s, playing with the likes of John Lurie, John Zorn, and Martin mentor Bob Moses. In 1991, the trio officially convened for an engagement at New York's Village Gate. Soon, the group was rehearsing in Martin's loft, writing, and then recording 1992's self-released Notes from the Underground. As the group began to tour, escaping the supportive though insular New York music community, Medeski -- a former child prodigy -- switched to a Hammond B-3 organ rather than a grand piano.
Gramavision released It's a Jungle in Here in 1993, which featured horn arrangements by future Sex Mob founder (and pan-scenester) Steven Bernstein. The medley of Thelonious Monk's "Bemsha Swing" and Bob Marley's "Lively Up Yourself" spoke volumes about what the band was attempting to accomplish. Friday Afternoon in the Universe, widely considered the band's breakthrough record, further continued the push toward groove-oriented accessibility, a move that peaked with the group's 1996 Rykodisc debut, Shack-Man (recorded entirely in the band's practice shack in the Maui jungle). By 1996, through a combination of endless touring and two widely circulated live collaborations with Phish, the group caught on in the burgeoning jam band scene, where they have continued to draw the bulk of their audience outside of New York.
Late in 1996, the group began a public return to its avant-garde roots, hosting a series of weekly "shack parties" at New York's Knitting Factory that featured collaborations with many musicians, including Vernon Reid and DJ Logic; the latter would soon become the group's unofficial fourth member. MMW issued the extremely free (and utterly beautiful) Farmer's Reserve on their own Indirecto imprint in 1997, a series of improvisations recorded at the Shack. Logic soon joined the band on the road, and MMW prepared to record Combustication, their first effort for Blue Note, as well as their first full-length collaboration with producer Scott Harding. In 2000, MMW truly came out as leaders with a pair of releases -- the live acoustic Tonic (recorded at the New York City club of the same name) and the electric The Dropper (recorded at the band's newly christened Shacklyn Studios in the trendy DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn) -- as well as an acclaimed Halloween performance at Manhattan's Beacon Theater. The Dropper featured Harding's gritty production, as well as appearances by Sun Ra alum Marshall Allen. In 2006, the group released Out Louder, an album that saw the trio collaborate with John Scofield. Their music was also featured on Grey's Anatomy.
Radiolarians I, the first of three loosely linked albums, appeared in the fall of 2008 on the group's own Indirecto Records imprint. Radiolarians II and III followed a year later, as did the trio's box set entitled Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set, containing the trilogy, a disc of remixes by celebrated DJs, a live CD, a double LP chosen from the three original albums, and a DVD documentary shot by Martin entitled Fly in a Bottle. At this stage of the band's nearly two-decade career, MMW's reputation has indeed achieved massive proportions.
As they always have, the three core bandmembers contribute to numerous other recording projects, both as sidemen and leaders. They are also recognized for carving paths that other musicians have followed -- for example, their rise in popularity contributed to a renaissance in B-3-based organ trios, and although many groups had played with DJs before them, MMW's performances with DJ Logic made it downright fashionable. And while still considered an "alternative" jazz group, Medeski, Martin & Wood continue to draw larger audiences than many of their mainstream counterparts. In 2011, MSMW Live: In Case the World Changes Its Mind was released by Indirecto Records. The double-length set was culled from the Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood 2006 world tour; its contents reflect material off Scofield's A Go Go and MSMW’s studio offering Out Louder. They also released 20, a collection of new songs and previously unrecorded older material. In 2012, MMW issued Free Magic, a live document of tunes taken from their 2007 acoustic tour.
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