Medeski Martin And Wood
 

Line Up:
John Medeski - Keys
Billy Martin - Drums/Percussion
Chris Wood - Bass

Official Album Releases:
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)
Combustication (1998)
Tonic: Live (2000)
The Dropper (2000)
Uninvisible (2002)
Electric Tonic (2002)
End of the World Party: Just In Case (2004)
Out Louder (2006)

Official Site: MMW


MMW are a groove-based jazz band, and they're most notable for their experimentations. They officially formed in 1991, and released their first album by 1992. Throughout the years, MMW have become more experimental with their music, and they use a different approach to their music in basically every album. Each and every release of theirs is a "must have", and they should never be over-looked. Anyone with an affection to experimental jazz (or even any general jazz fan) should come in contact with a MMW album at some point, it won't be regreted!

Discuss Medeski Martin and Wood :)

right on, they are my favorite band

Any other fans?

Totally....I have 4 of their albums...of them all, I like Combustication the best. So groovy!

Favorite Jazz group. Love it.
I just picked up Radiolarians II. Heard it is pretty good. Excited to give it a listen.

wicked. my love for them started before i even knew who they were... there was an experimental jazz trio who went by the name of The Ed Toast Band who used to regularly visit stratford, and among many other great things they did, they did their own renditions of bubblehouse and chubb sub that were just phenomenal. then i got into MM&W about a year or two after that band broke up and just love it. i think pick a favourite is quite difficult because, as you say, every album is a must-have. i really like Tonic though because the whole album was recorded with two mics set up like two ears in the middle of the trio. anyway, glad there's an appreciation group here for these hard-working musikers!

Combustication is a great album, so is Univisible. I'm not a huge fan of Jazz, but I like experimental stuff like this.

Any fans of MMW should check out St Germain as well :)

i find MMW to be relatively overrated. they're not a bad band but they're not that great either. they're a jazzy funk outfit that toss out 'random' synth sounds over their grooves. it's impressive if you've never heard their predecessors, or if you're coming into the style from the mainstream.

they're good at what they do and from what i understand they put on a phenomenal live show, but if you had a time machine and dropped their albums next to the rest of the jazz funk fusion of the 70s i doubt many people would be able to spot the difference aside from production quality.

i have yet to hear anything come out of the MMW camp that sounds like it's really getting as close to out there as Herbie Han****'s 'Headhunters' album (from '73), let alone surpassing it.

Hahaha.... Herbie's last name is censored :laughing:

yeah it's a disappointing reflection of the censor hahaha. thankfully he wasn't censored when i saw him in Ottawa a few years ago :thumb:

MMW does make a room rock. I used to listen to them a ton around Shack-Man time. I listened to Herbie (Sextant being a favorite, also Thrust) a lot around the same time. Both are good. Also currently good in this field is Critters Buggin.

Who was Herbie touring with when you saw him? I saw him with Nathan East, Colaiuta and Lionel Loueke and it was nothing short of phenomenal.


Anyway MMW is pretty sweet although I'm only really familiar with their first few albums.

i saw him with Brian Blade, Dave Holland, and Wayne Shorter, and yeah, nothing short of phenomenal. Herbie even gave the crowd a good laugh when the wind blew his sheet music off the piano and he kept playing along as it fell to the stage floor hehehe.

I just got into St. Germain heavily after hearing I'd like them if I liked MMW. What are some other groups that sound this way? I absolutely love it.

Critters Buggin, Garage A Trois, Syncopated Taint Septet

(all featuring Skerik)


not enough of this stuff around as instrumental music is harder to market


I know there's others but I'm spacin what they are just now

you'll probably really like Koop.

Xploding Plastix is similar but bigger and faster beats

early stuff by the Cinematic Orchestra also fits the bill but it's a lot slower paced.

Oh yeah - Cinematic Orchestra is nice for sure

such a fantastic group. really trippy yet solid grooves.

Ive really been getting into them lately. Can anyone recommend some albums? I just ordered uninvisible

One of my favorite bands. A blizzard ruined my chance to see them in NYC last year. I was pissed.

I remember when I used to listen to this band a lot. Wow, that was nearly two decades ago. You need to hear this album (it's the only one I remember (actually I don't even remember it but it's the only CD of theirs that I own so it's probably good)).

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