also, this is a great concept for a tour, not to mention, and extremely brave one...
Each leg offers audience new music
Medeski, Martin and Wood, or MMW as the trio is known to its legions of fans, is not your ordinary jazz group.
From their beginnings in the early 1990s, the three have stretched the boundaries of their music. MMW -- John Medeski on piano, organ and other keyboards; Billy Martin on drums and percussion; and Chris Wood on acoustic and electric bass -- throughout its career has incorporated elements ranging from funk to freeform to build its unique brand of jazz, which it will bring to the Kentucky Center's Bomhard Theater today.
MMW has fans in both the jazz and jam-band communities. Its tour schedule ranges from jazz clubs to pop festivals.
Louisville is the band's final stop on the second leg of its 2008 "Viva La Evolution Tours." For each of the three VLET treks, MMW will write new music, which it intends to play only for those audiences.
Following the performances, they will record the music as "The Radiolarian Series," the first volume of which it has just completed in the studio.
In a telephone interview, Wood expressed the excitement that he and his colleagues share: "This is fun, it's going to be all-new music, people get a chance to see works in progress. It's not like we're going to be playing stuff that we've played a million times and are sick of.
"I think it's exciting to see stuff that's fresh and new, and see the band members actually working it out on stage. I think people will get a kick out of it."
The approach is different, Wood said, adding, "The basic idea is that once we record this material, we're done with it, and probably won't play it live again."
They will not be recording the concerts for live-album releases; these performances are "strictly geared toward the studio process," he said.
While the trio operates as a self-contained unit, MMW also enjoys working with other artists. They have had a particularly rewarding relationship with guitarist John Scofield, with whom they recorded "A Go Go" in 1997.
They reunited as Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood for last year's release "Out Louder," which is available as a single CD and as a double set that includes 45 minutes of live performances.
Their most recent release is, of all things, a children's album, the whimsical "Let's Go Everywhere."
So, are they a jazz band, a jam band or jack-of-all-trades band?
"You can't control who is going to be attracted and come see your music and how people are going to categorize it," Wood said. "That just sort of happened and has its own life.
"We focus on the music. We are definitely affected. When we're in a festival situation with a sea of college-age kids, then it affects what material we come out with.
"If we're in front of a seated club, where there's a quiet, listening audience, then we're going to play two different shows in both those situations."
A musician who sounds equally comfortable on the upright acoustic bass and electric bass guitar, Wood said, "They serve different purposes. Once we figure out what we're going for in a certain piece, I tend to stick with one or the other.
"Sometimes we have a tune we're playing on tour, we feel like we haven't quite found exactly what it is yet, and then I'll experiment with the different basses and see what works."
Despite the configuration of keyboards, bass and drums, Wood and Martin do not serve as a rhythm section for the ostensible lead instrument. "My interplay with Billy is constantly changing from moment to moment," Wood said. "It's not set in stone; we're not just accompanying John."
He added, "With the trio, we have the freedom to change roles. We all, at times, have to take the lead. There's a lot of trading-off. There are times when Billy and I are interacting and accompanying John, while at other times when we're all equally interacting with each other."
By Martin Z. Kasdan Jr. • The Louisville Courier-Journal • July 18, 2008
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