Medeski

They may attract Sufi-dancing Deadheads to their rock-club shows and they may have connections to lower Manhattan's art-music scene, but when you get right down to it, Medeski Martin & Wood are just a jazz organ trio. Organist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood don't work a whole lot differently from the old Jimmy Smith Trio; they get a good groove going, add a catchy hook and then improvise changes on both the rhythm and the melody. They may take more liberties than Smith ever has, but that familiar combination of a thick organ sound and funky drum patterns is still the core. The third Medeski Martin & Wood album, Friday Afternoon in the Universe, is the best reflection yet of the trio's live show, for 13 of the 15 tracks feature no guests, just the interaction among the three principals. And that interaction has been honed by three years of extensive roadwork into a genuine give-and-take. There's no parade of disconnected solos here, no fast, flashy playing for its own sake; the three players move as one through impressionistic, atmospheric patches into driving funk grooves and then off onto spacey tangents. Medeski plays some piano and synthesizer, but everything he plays has the thickened textures associated with a B-3 organ–thick enough to make three pieces more than sufficient.

Geoffrey Himes

John Medeski's Mad Skillet - Mad Skillet (2018) {Indirecto}
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© 2018 Indirecto Records
Jazz / Groove / Blues / Psychedelic Rock

Mad Skillet is John Medeski’s new band with Grammy nominated guitarist/bandleader Will Bernard (Medicine Hat, Party Hats), New Orleans native sousaphone player Kirk Joseph (Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Backyard Groove), and drummer Terence Higgins (Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Ani DiFranco), also a New Orleans native. This is their debut album!

John Medeski's solo piano debut was a long time coming. Recorded for Sony Masterworks' revived Okeh imprint, it's a 41-minute showcase of a pianist we've not really encountered – at least at this length – before. At the suggestion of engineer and producer Henry Hirsch, Medeski cut this set using a seven-foot, 1925 French Gaveau piano. The instrument has a very different construct than the Steinways he usually plays. According to his liner essay, "The Gaveau responds to a more delicate, nuanced touch, requiring the player's full attention in every moment to control the sound. One must sing with the fingers."

From March to May 2015, John Zorn composed 300 new tunes that were eventually collected into a book of music he called The Bagatelles. After 5 years of performances around the world in venues large and small, the choicest ensembles have gone into the studio and the recordings are finally being made available in a series of limited edition 4-CD BOX sets. Each set will present four ensembles performing a unique program of Zorn’s Bagatelles.

Medeski, Martin & Wood are among the busiest acts in the music biz. To celebrate their 20-year anniversary in 2011, the group has been releasing its latest album, 20, track by track. Also this year, following the grand Radiolarians series, they decided to issue its DVD portion, Fly in a Bottle, as a separate package; finally, there's MSMW Live: In Case the World Changes Its Mind, an utterly kinetic recording from their 2006 tour with jazz guitar boss John Scofield. In 1997 the trio backed Sco on his stellar A Go Go album. He returned the favor in 2006 by playing on MMW's Out Louder; this tour followed. The double disc collects performances from both recordings and a couple of others.

Medeski Martin & Wood - Radiolarians. The Evolutionary Set (2009) [5CD+DVD BoxSet] {Indirecto Records}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.8 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 720 Mb
DVD5 -> 5.23 Gb | All Regions | NTSC 16:9 | Dolby AC3, 2 ch | ~ 99m | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 48 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2009 Indirecto Records | IR10
Jazz / Jam / Jazz Funk / Avant-Garde Jazz

Medeski Martin & Wood culminate their 2-year Radiolarian Series with a comprehensive box set of material entitled Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set, which Indirecto Records will release on November 24th 2009. The box set will include: Radiolarians I, II and III complete with bonus tracks, a 10 track disc of remixed music, a previously unreleased 70 minute live album, a double vinyl LP set consisting of highlights from the three Radiolarians albums, plus a DVD feature film entitled Fly In A Bottle directed by Billy Martin. All of the material contained in the box was written and performed by MMW specifically for The Radiolarian Series.

Medeski Martin & Wood - Radiolarians II (2009)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 293 Mb | Artwork (web) -> 2 Mb
© 2009 Indirecto Records | IR05
Jazz / Jam / Jazz Funk / Avant-Garde Jazz

The second volume in keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood's Radiolarians series is, much like the first, wildly eclectic. Certainly all the trio's records could be classified in this way, but few of them are as playful and musically adventurous as the ones in this series. Once more, the band incorporates everything in its own brand of modern jazz: from funk and rhythm & blues to the vanguard tradition; from soul and rock through carnival music, country, and beat-conscious grooves. "Flat Tires" opens the set and comes off all distorto-rockist in the intro thanks to Wood's nasty bassline that feels more like an electric guitar riffing before it's addressed by a couple of taut rolls by Martin and some wailing carnival organ by Medeski.