Jazz Articles

Billy Martin's Wicked Knee: Heels Over Head

by Doug Collette
March 20, 2013

After a long series of way under-the radar solo projects, drummer Billy Martin has chosen a more accessible route in the last couple of years, beginning with his duo collaboration with keyboardist Wil Blades, Shimmy (The Royal Potato Family, 2012).The followup to the eponymous seven-track EP, Heels Over Head is equally easy to digest, perhaps more so, even if the instrumental lineup of Wicked Knee is somewhat unconventional. Martin has enlisted longtime kindred spirit and master horn man ...

Billy Martin's Wicked Knee: Heels Over Head

by Mark Corroto
March 15, 2013

What if drummer Billy Martin of the late-20th, now 21st-century band Medeski Martin and Wood had been born at the end of the 19th century in New Orleans? What kind of music would he play? Certainly, it would have a brass band setting and be inflected with blues feel. Invite Buddy Bolden over tonight, because we have some funky ragtime sound with Martin's new outfit Wicked Knee. This their first full-length release, that follows the EP Wicked Knee (Amulet, 2011).

Grant Calvin Weston: Nassira

by Martin Longley
December 16, 2008

The Amulet label is operated by Billy Martin and Grant Calvin Weston is one of that sticksman's key drumming influences. It's easy to believe, given this album's swirling blend of abstraction and groove. Nassira opens with an apocalyptic drumming statement, thundering toms and slashed cymbals raging against a building snowstorm drone. This “Earth Mover" track features Weston alone and subsequent tunes have him handling bass, keyboard and trumpeting duties, besides laying down the brutally complex drum patterns. ...

Billy Martin / John Medeski: Mago

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
November 11, 2007

In their nearly twenty year history, drummer Billy Martin and organist John Medeski have developed an acute affinity built on a shared rhythmic feel and devotion to improvisation. On Mago, they return to the duo format, the seed that blossomed into the successful trio Medeski, Martin & Wood (MMW). The eleven tracks crackle with vitality, as the musicians mine their seemingly infinite variety of grooves. The aggressive burner “Introducing Mago opens the CD, one of the bookend ...

Billy Martin / John Medeski: Mago

by Doug Collette
May 14, 2007

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 ...

Billy Martin / John Medeski: Mago

by Troy Collins
May 8, 2007

In 1989 organist John Medeski joined percussionist Billy Martin in his Brooklyn loft for a jam session that became the genesis for the groove institution known as MMW. Together with bassist Chris Wood, Medeski, Martin & Wood has become one of the most successful cross-over stories in all of modern jazz.

Medeski and Martin vowed to record as a duo one day, and Mago is the result. Stripped down to core essentials, Martin eschews additional percussion in favor ...

Dave Burrell and Billy Martin: Consequences

by Rex Butters
August 28, 2006

Consequences teams pianist Dave Burrell with percussionist Billy Martin of Medeski, Martin and Wood, making this a collaboration between two avant gardists separated by a generation or two. Though Burrell recorded with the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and Marion Brown while Martin attended high school, any doubts about their compatibility disappear when the two artists face off on this performance, recorded live in Philadelphia. Their unique four-handed journey leads them up, over, beyond and back, locked ...

Billy Martin: illyB Eats 2

by AAJ Staff
May 15, 2004

Be warned: this collection of beats and grooves is not suitable for regular listening... so if you're looking for straight-up satisfaction, look elsewhere. DJs, however, may find a nugget or two to be gleaned. The whole point of the exercise is to provide fodder for mixes and remixes. In today's studio music culture, brand new records like these are just as capable of fueling a groove as '70s soul jazz classics.

Billy Martin, of course, is one third ...

Bob Moses: Love Animal

by David Adler
August 25, 2003

Bob Moses recorded his debut album, Love Animal, in 1967-68 at the age of 19. But he never released it, he tells us in his informative and often amusing liner notes, "for reasons I don't remember." After all these years, the master drummer/percussionist has decided to unveil his earliest work as a leader on Amulet Records, which is run by Moses' disciple and kindred spirit Billy Martin (aka "illy B"). And so Love Animal takes its place alongside Moses' avant-garde ...

Bob Moses/Tisziji Munos: Love Everlasting

by Mark Corroto
April 1, 2000

I hope I’m still alive in the year 2026. Like last year with Duke Ellington and this year honoring the 100th anniversary of Louis Armstrong’s birth, 2026 with mark John Coltrane’s centenary. Coltrane, who bore so many musical descendants, will surely be pleased with the various tributes to come. One early contribution to that upcoming year is the spiritually driven Love Everlasting, released recently but recorded thirteen years ago. While you do the math, I’ll thank Medeski, Martin, and Woods’ ...