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Medeski, Martin and Wood: Radiolarians - The Evolutionary Set
by Sean Patrick Fitzell
Medeski Martin & WoodRadiolarians: The Evolutionary SetIndirecto Records2009 In an age when jazz is usually driven by individuals and fleeting lineups, the ability of Medeski, Martin and Wood (MMW) to sustain and reinvigorate their collective creativity for nearly 20 years is astounding. Never risk-averse--whether jamming with turntablists or flouting expectations with an all-acoustic record and tour--they've kept the music fresh for themselves and their listeners. So it wasn't ...
Continue ReadingMedeski, Martin & Wood: Radiolarians - The Evolutionary Set
by Doug Collette
Medeski Martin & WoodRadiolarians: The Evolutionary SetIndirecto Records2009 Medeski, Martin & Wood is always going a little further, whether it's in the course of a live performance, a studio recording or the aesthetics of its music. Accordingly, Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set is both metaphor for the group's restless ambition and a tangible product of it. This box set of five CDs, a double set of vinyl LPs and a ...
Continue ReadingJohn 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 ...
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