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About Medeski Martin & Wood
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
Medeski, Martin & Wood: Radiolarians I
by Doug Collette
The concept behind Medeski, Martin and Wood's Radiolarian Series isn't wholly new to the forward-thinking trio. They spent the better part of a year or more playing pieces live that would come to comprise their Blue Note adieu, 2004's End of the World Party (Just in Case) (2004). But this yearlong project involves a quicker turnaround from composing, to touring, and then to recording.
Like MMW's previous 2008 release, Zaebos: Book of Angels (Tzadik), Radiolarians 1 benefits from a straightforward ...
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by Ryan Lippell
Medeski, Martin & WoodRadiolarians IIndirecto Records2008
Devised for commercial effectiveness, the traditional record label model is precisely defined: artists write new music, then record that music, then market and tour to spread the word and generate sales. The model is predicated on compartmentalization and a lengthy timeline and most definitely not on leaks and theft--the thriving offspring of the twenty-first century accessibility of music. But times have ... Continue ReadingMedeski, Martin and Wood: Zaebos: The Book of Angels Vol. 11
by Doug Collette
Master improvisers that they are, Medeski, Martin and Wood nevertheless do nothing without purpose. Their participation in John Zorn's Masada Series is just such a decisive action.
Zaebos: The Book of Angels Vol. 11 was recorded in January and March of 2008, just prior to MMW's announcement of its year-long project dubbed “The Radiolarian Series" (whereby the group would compose, play live, then record three different batches of new original material). Thus, to take part in Zorn's exploration of his ...
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by Troy Collins
Composer John Zorn has entered what could cautiously be referred to as his mature period. His early game pieces have given way to neoclassical works heavily influenced by modernists such as Boulez, Ligeti and Xenakis, while his Hassidic-inspired Masada projects have gained him unprecedented mainstream popularity. Masada has roots deeper than its recorded history however; before the original acoustic Masada quartet, there was the Thieves Quartet.
Zorn's score for Joel Chappelle's 1994 film noir, Thieves Quartet, utilized the ...
Continue ReadingMedeski, Martin & Wood: Let's Go Everywhere
by Jay Deshpande
Throughout their decade-and-a-half-long career together, Medeski, Martin & Wood have managed to straddle many difficult boundaries. They have all the trappings of a jam-band, but maintain an avant-garde appeal. They keep a large cadre of fans around the globe, even as their inventiveness and pursuit of new sounds make them seem like they should be difficult to latch onto.
With the new children's album Let's Go Everywhere, MMW is again bridging a gap, and a particularly thorny one in jazz ...
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by Ryan Lippell
Medeski, Martin & Wood Let's Go Everywhere Little Monster Records 2008
Roll over Raffi and boogie on out Barney... Medeski, Martin & Wood are now cutting kids' records. Though best known for a brand of jazz that attracts 20-somethings, the Brooklyn-based trio shows with Let's Go Everywhere that jazz hybridized with elements of avant-garde, funk, trance, rock and hip-hop is also suited to seven-year-olds.
Appropriately co-conceived while bassist Chris Wood and Little ...
Continue ReadingBilly Martin / John Medeski: Mago
by Doug Collette
One of the primary virtues of the Medeski, Martin and Wood partnership is the fluid means by which they conduct side projects as smoothly as they interact when they play together. Billy Martin's live percussion workshops may be less farther afield than keyboardist John Medeski's production of sacred steel band The Campbell Brothers, but they are no less conducive to keeping the MMW collaboration fresh than bassist Chris Wood's touring and recording Americana music with his brother Oliver.
Not surprisingly ...
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