Medeski Martin & Wood - The Radiolarian Series - Free Download of "Free Go Lily"

Free Download of "Free Go Lily"

Medeski Martin & Wood have never been your typical band. Creativity has led their career and their music always stays unique. Now, the restlessly inventive improvising trio Medeski Martin & Wood are set to embark on an ingenious new experiment dubbed The Radiolarian Series.

The Radiolarian Series - named after a type of single-celled organism with dazzlingly intricate exoskeletons - is designed to subvert the age-old music industry cycle of write/record/tour. The trio, consisting of keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood, will convene for brief writing retreats, perform only that new material on tour, record the material immediately after getting off the road, and release it as an album on their own Indirecto label.

The process will be repeated three times, resulting in three albums - the first of which,
Radiolarians I, will be in stores on September 30th. Check out "Free Go Lily", the first single from Radiolarians I, via the link above.

Medeski Martin & Wood On Tour

09.16.08 - Teatro Oriente - Santiago De Chile
09.18.08 - Bourbon St. - Sao Paulo
09.19.08 - Canecao - Rio de Janeiro
09.20.08 - SESC Vila Mariana - Sao Paulo
09.21.08 - SESC Vila Mariana - Sao Paulo
09.23.08 - Teatro Gran Rex - Buenos Aires
09.28.08 - Bearsville Theatre - Bearsville, NY
10.31.08 - The Garden Hall - Yebisu, Tokyo
11.01.08 - The Garden Hall - Yebisu, Tokyo
11.12.08 - Moore Theatre - Seattle, WA
11.13.08 - Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, BC
11.14.08 - Aladdin Theatre - Portland, OR
11.15.08 - McDonald Theatre - Eugene, OR
11.16.08 - Van Duzer Theatre - Arcata, CA
11.18.08 - McNears Mystic Theatre - Petaluma, CA
11.19.08 - Rio Theatre - Santa Cruz, CA
11.20.08 - Fillmore - San Francisco, CA
11.21.08 - El Rey Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
11.22.08 - John Ascuaga's Nugget - Sparks, NV

MMW [Medeski, Martin and Wood] is jazzed by Evolution tour

i saw these guys deliver a scorching set @ tall stacks in cincinnati a couple of years ago and while they are not necessarily my "cup of tea" musically, they are brilliant and gifed musicians nonetheless. their music is hard to describe and manages to walk a fine line between free form improvisational funked up jazz and jam band.

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