Medeski Martin & Wood
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Medeski Martin & Wood | |
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 Medeski Martin & Wood performing at the Pomigliano Jazz Festival, 2005
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York, USA |
| Genre(s) | Jazz, experimental, fusion, funk, free jazz, soul jazz |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Label(s) | Blue Note, Gramavision, Indirecto |
| Website | www.mmw.net |
| Members | |
| John Medeski Billy Martin Chris Wood |
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Medeski Martin & Wood (or MMW) is an American jazz trio formed in 1991, consisting of John Medeski on keyboards, Billy Martin on drums and percussion, and Chris Wood on double bass and bass guitar.
They have found moderate mainstream success -- often working with noted guitarist John Scofield -- and touring on the jam band circuit.
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[edit] History
The band members were introduced to each other by jazz drummer Bob Moses, who had performed with Medeski and Wood , and was Martin's instructor.
Medeski Martin & Wood's first performances together were at the Village Gate, a popular New York jazz club. They were initially an acoustic jazz trio, but Medeski added a Hammond organ when the difficulties of touring with a piano became apparent. Their first album, Notes from the Underground, is a record of their entirely-acoustic era. All of their subsequent albums reveal Medeski's use of a wide variety of keyboards, including mellotron, melodica, and a clavinet. Wood entirely eschewed the electric bass for MMW's first three albums, and still relies heavily on the acoustic upright bass in recordings and during live performances. Their earlier albums reveal a hip hop influenced updating of classic soul jazz sounds, which is the primary theme of their well-known 1996 album, Shack-man.
The band received some of their first significant exposure outside of the New York City jazz scene by performing with Phish at their October 14, 1995 concert, which led to the association of the group as a jam band.[1] In addition, their performance on John Scofield's 1997 album A Go Go helped to further their exposure. The band collaborated further with Scofield again in 2006, releasing the album Out Louder under the name Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood. This was the first album released on MMW's own Indirecto Records.
From 1998–2005, MMW were signed to leading jazz label Blue Note Records, and showed them delving deeper into dense, electronic funk than their earlier albums, although the band continued to experiment with free jazz and free improvisation both on their albums and in concert.
Medeski Martin & Wood's live performances are renowned for their exploratory nature. Their concerts usually involve extended improvisations, which may be both arrhythmic and atonal, an aspect of their musicianship that is rarely documented in the studio. They also embark on an occasional acoustic tour, reverting back to the instrumentation that they began with. Their album Tonic is an example of these more contemporary acoustic performances. They have also done short tours of entirely improvisatory performances, a feat which few musicians undertake. These shows usually consisted of two sets of improvisation, followed by an encore of a song from an album.
Their song "End of the World Party" was featured on the hit show Grey's Anatomy and can be found on the show's soundtrack.
John Medeski and Billy Martin also have a side project named Mago. They performed at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival.[2]
[edit] Discography
- Notes from the Underground (January 1, 1992)
- It's a Jungle in Here (October 18, 1993)
- Friday Afternoon in the Universe (January 24, 1995)
- Shack-man (October 15, 1996)
- Farmer's Reserve (February 11, 1997)
- Bubblehouse (April 8, 1997)
- Combustication (August 11, 1998)
- Combustication Remix EP (April 20, 1999)
- Last Chance to Dance Trance (Perhaps) (October 12, 1999)
- Tonic (April 25, 2000)
- The Dropper (October 24, 2000)
- Electric Tonic (October 31, 2001)
- Uninvisible (April 9, 2002)
- End of the World Party (Just in Case) (September 7, 2004)
- Note Bleu: Best of the Blue Note Years 1998–2005 (April 4, 2006)
- Out Louder (as Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood) (September 26, 2006)
- Mago (as Billy Martin & John Medeski) (April 10, 2007)
- Let's Go Everywhere (January 8, 2008)
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- A Go Go (1998), first collaboration with John Scofield
- The Wood Brothers
- Organ trio
[edit] External links
[edit] Listening
- Art of the States: Medeski Martin & Wood "Do you know the way to San Jose?" (1967) by Burt Bacharach
| Medeski Martin & Wood |
|---|
| John Medeski | Billy Martin | Chris Wood |
| Discography |
| Notes from the Underground (1992) | It's a Jungle in Here (1993) | Friday Afternoon in the Universe (1995) | Shack-man (1996) | Farmer's Reserve (1997) | Bubblehouse (1997) | Combustication (1998) | Combustication Remix EP (1999) | Last Chance to Dance Trance (Perhaps) (1999) | Tonic (2000) | The Dropper (2000) | Electric Tonic (2001) | Uninvisible (2002) | End of the World Party (Just in Case) (2004) | Note Bleu: Best of the Blue Note Years 1998-2005 (2006) | Out Louder (2006) | Mago (2007) | Let's Go Everywhere (2008) |
| Related articles |
| John Scofield | The Wood Brothers |
