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John Medeski: Mad Science
by Graham L. Flanagan
The sight of John Medeski performing on stage--his brow furrowed by intense concentration--can be intimidating. Armed with an arsenal of instruments both traditional and unconventional, he concocts sonic combinations most listeners would never have otherwise conceived. It's obvious that he's there to work--not play. Like a mad scientist who's been stuck in his lab for months, Medeski proudly shows off the results of his experiments, making the listener sit up and take notice...perhaps even notes. The doctor is in session.
Continue ReadingMedeski, Martin & Wood: Radiolarians - The Evolutionary Set
by John Kelman
Released over the last year, Medeski, Martin & Wood's three-part Radiolarians series bucked the longstanding and conventional trend of writing > recording > touring. Touring material before documenting it on record isn't exactly new, but few if any artists have done so with such an extensive repertoire--three hours of new material, all taken on the road and honed before MMW ever set foot in a recording studio to lay the tracks down. That there's such a tremendous benefit ...
Continue ReadingWill Bernard: Blue Plate Special
by Doug Collette
Will Bernard's Blue Plate Special features a veritable supergroup of modern jazz, whose diverse talents on their respective instruments complements their collective experience and, perhaps more importantly, the range of material supplied by the bandleader. On paper, it looks too good to work, but work it does and splendidly at that.
“Baby Goats" may sound, at first, like a vintage variation on composer John Medeski's work with Medeski, Martin and Wood, but as Stanton Moore's syncopation deepens and ...
Continue ReadingWill Bernard: Blue Plate Special
by Troy Collins
Blue Plate Special is San Francisco Bay Area guitarist Will Bernard's fifth release as a leader and his second for Palmetto Records, following the star-studded groove-fest, Party Hats (2007). Dispensing with the additional horns and guest instrumentalists of previous releases, this session features Bernard as the leader of a stripped-down quartet. The relatively spare setting allows greater focus on his highly rhythmic approach to the guitar, with an emphasis on the empathetic interplay with his principle sideman, keyboardist John Medeski. ...
Continue ReadingJohn Medeski / Mathew Shipp: Scotty Hard's Radical Reconstructive Surgery
by Ian Patterson
One of the strengths of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was the employment of silence. Yet if any piece of music could successfully accompany the image of Frank being “severed" from the space-pod by HAL, then the spacey, sinister intro of Scotty Hard's Radical Reconstructive Surgery could be it.
This is an album full of halucinatory noises and unearthly voices, swirling Moog and Wurlitzer atmospherics, and stabbing piano, all carried along on a deep funk beat. “Operation Chance sounds ...
Continue ReadingJohn Medeski / Matthew Shipp: Scotty Hard's Radical Reconstructive Surgery
by Troy Collins
Celebrated hip-hop producer Scotty Hard realizes a longstanding ambition on Radical Reconstructive Surgery: the pairing of keyboardists John Medeski and Matthew Shipp. This album documents the first-ever recorded encounter of the two players, both former students of the New England Conservatory of Music. Half the pieces consist of written collaborations between Medeski, Shipp and Hard; the remainder of the tunes were written by Hard.
Medeski and Shipp are joined by stalwart bassist William Parker and rising drummer Nasheet ...
Continue ReadingJohn Medeski: Note Bleu and Piano Jazz
by AAJ Staff
By Paul Christopher Dowd
Medeski Martin and Wood Note Bleu: The Best of the Blue Note Years 1998-2005 Blue Note 2006 Marian McPartland Piano Jazz with John Medeski Jazz Alliance-Concord 2006
For Medeski, Martin & Wood it has always been about the groove. And in the decade since their crossover appeal ...
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