Although this year marks the 25th anniversary of Medeski Martin & Wood you didn’t find the musicians celebrating it with a timely set of tour dates and album releases. Instead, the members continued a hiatus that began over a year ago and pursued other endeavors—keyboardist John Medeski performed solo dates plus shows with John Scofield, the Meters, the Dear Jerry: Let’s Play 2 concert and recorded with Saudade and FIREJELLY, percussionist Billy Martin produced new music, art and a book and bassist Chris Wood maintained an active schedule in the Wood Brothers.
The trio did perform together as an opening act for the Motet’s headlining gig last July at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Headlining concerts on Oct. 18, 19 and 20 at where it all started for them at Le Poisson Rouge (formerly the Village Gate) were scrapped at the last minute when Wood had emergency surgery. (They’re rescheduled for Jan. 16-18.) His bandmates honored the dates by performing with previous collaborator Nels Cline on one night and the Campbell Brothers on the other.
Now, the only 25th anniversary headlining performances this year will occur when MMW play Nov. 18 and 19 at On Air Studio in Cleveland. They will be joined by previous collaborators, including: Marc Ribot, Steve Bernstein, Cyro Baptista, DJ Logic and DJ Olive.
From the beginning Medeski Martin & Wood’s approached music as if it was a palette of colors that ranged from snow white to dead of night black. The instrumental trio opted for New York’s downtown art-music scene because they viewed the jazz outlets stifling to the band members’ musical ambition; one that encouraged improvisation, experimentation and developing new sonic structures that embraced the musical styles of the past and present.
The band’s wide open approach to jazz led them to incorporate funk, hip-hop, avant-noise, spoken word and much much more.
As Medeski explained in their bio, Martin’s groove-oriented rhythms lay a foundation that pull in listeners who may not readily embrace jazz or improvisational music. That allows him to “get in there and infect their minds more easily, and Chris can lay it down to keep them from losing it.”
It’s an adventurous combination that has worked when playing tunes from their 21 releases as well as totally improvised performances plus studio and onstage collaborations with legendary guitarist John Scofield.
I had a conversation with Medeski as he waited at Newark Liberty International Airport for his flight to California. It’s the morning after the New York shows that took place in lieu of the MMW gigs. He is headed west to play at Hangtown Music Festival in Placerville, California with Martin in another ad hoc configuration that was originally to feature MMW. Today, it will be a one-of-a-kind ensemble with Kirk Joseph of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (tuba) and Will Bernard (guitar) dubbed Medeski Martin & Mad Skillet. Then, it’s back on a plane the next day to perform with John Zorn and later in DRKWAV with Adam Deitch and Skerik as part of Brooklyn Comes Alive music festival.
JPG: You’re a very busy man. Playing at home then crisscrossing the country within two days. Is your equipment going out with you or do you have instruments set up in California…?
JM: In California I’ll rent stuff. In New York City, it depends. If I work it out I’ll bring my stuff. Cleveland, I’ll bring my stuff.
JPG: This goes with not only the last-minute shows and lineups you just played with but also with your other projects and Medeski Martin & Wood, to deal with each situation are you very compartmentalized and disciplined? Do you meditate or do anything to focus on being in the moment?
JM: I don’t consider myself disciplined but I can be disciplined when I need to be (laughs). This is certainly the life, to be traveling a lot playing music. The actual playing part is the fun part. It’s what I’ve always done. It’s what I do. Other than having to learn music and prepare for whatever show I’m doing, that’s the good part. That’s between an hour and three hours a night. The rest of the time is the traveling, getting there and setting up, and that’s the hard part.
I do have certain spiritual practices in my life that definitely make everything make sense and make it easier. For me, and maybe it’s because of the nature of the music that I play and it’s something that MMW cultivated over 25 years, is that there’s no one way to prepare for any day or any gig. I have done that in my life where I have certain things that I do everyday—routine, exercise and stretches—but, in general, I found that it’s to tune into what’s necessary for that particular day. It could be staying in a hotel room and stretching out, taking a bath. It could be going out and having a crazy fun dinner with a bunch of friends. You really have to know where you’re at and what you need because, really, the whole bottom line is you want to be 100 percent or more at show time. So, if you need a nap you take a nap or if taking a nap is not going to do it you don’t take a nap. It’s really about being in the flow and knowing from experience what you need.
That’s what I do. The thing is I’ve played with a lot of different people so I also adapt to whoever I’m playing with in terms of what their rhythm is. When I’m out with [John] Scofield we gotta go out with those guys and have the afternoon espresso (laughs). When I’m by myself I make green tea. I toured solo piano in Europe and that’s a whole other thing. When I had my solo piano tour in Europe I would kick everyone out of the dressing room 20 minutes before the show and I did a little, I guess you would call it a meditation. At soundcheck I would do certain exercises on the piano. It would take about 15 minutes, some little warm-up things. Now, for Medeski Martin & Wood I don’t do that so much because I want to connect with the people I’m playing with.
Last night we did this gig with Nels Cline, Steven Bernstein, Julian Lage, Chris Lightcap and Billy [Martin] and me. We soundchecked and then we went for a walk in the East Village and connected on that level. We don’t see each other a lot. That particular configuration had never played together altogether. We all played with each other in different situations. It was nice to connect and everybody dispersed on MacDougal Street, got a little food and then we met up again…everyday it’s different.
JPG: You mentioned Medeski Martin & Wood’s time together. Being such a busy person, did you have to be reminded of the 25th anniversary or was it marked on your calendar?
JM: Well, sort of, half and half. We had our 20th…you could ask my wife I’m really bad about that stuff. I don’t even know how many years I’ve been married. I don’t keep track of…that’s not my thing. Chris Wood is good at that stuff. He’s like the organizer. We all each had our roles. If I wanted to know the name of the club we played in wherever whenever I’d call Chris and ask him.
JPG: What was your role if he was the organizer?
JM: Good question. I cooked. I’m in charge of food and morale.
JPG: If you’re a good cook that certainly would raise morale. So, as for the 25th anniversary of the band, is there any particular meaning to you or is it just a good excuse to get together again?
JM: Just the fact that we’ve been together this long is meaningful. That was nothing we ever imagined or thought of when we got together. And what I’ve been saying because it’s true is that we wouldn’t be together and, from the beginning, we wouldn’t have stayed together if it wasn’t still musically creatively fun and still felt vital. None of us are that kind of musician…
In our early days when we were going around playing rock festivals and opening up for different bands we saw what it was like for bands who hated each other but got up onstage and played the same songs that they were doing a long time ago. That was not what any of us wanted and nothing any of us wants as far as being musicians. The fact that we still actually get along, we get together to play, we hang out, we go get dinner. It’s family-like. Still, when we play it feels good. There’s a certain chemistry that is very comfortable and creative.
JPG: MMW hasn’t had a regular schedule of touring in a number of years and your last studio effort was 2009’s Radiolarians, so was it just a matter of a hiatus and everyone got involved with other projects and time passed quickly?
JM: We made an announcement last year. We took last year off. Then, it extended into this year. We decided to do something for our 25th: We made a live recording with Alarm Will Sound in Colorado over a year ago and we’re trying to figure out how to release it. For our 20th anniversary we did record 20 songs and only released them digitally. Radiolarians was our last full-on release. We’ve been talking about doing something next year. The hiatus just sort of happened. From the beginning we talked about, “We should take a year off and do other things,” but the band was just snowballing and we couldn’t stop. It’s not easy to put the brakes on. So, we kinda did. The brakes are on.
JPG: I know how it is for me and the work that I do. So, I imagine it’s similar for you that the hardest thing for a musician to say is the word, “No.”
JM: Oh, I can’t say it. My dad used to make fun of me that I would play for anything.
JPG: That’s why you’re going to California today and then back to New York tomorrow.
JM: Yeah. My dad used to say, “You’d play for a goat screwing if they asked you.” And the truth is I would.
JPG: You’re a working musician. You’ve got to work.
JM: I had a teacher, Lee Shaw, a long time ago when I was 11, who told me “If you get asked to do a gig say, “Yes, and then figure out how to do it by the time the gig comes up.”
I also like a lot of different kinds of music. In this past month how am I gonna say, “No,” to a little tour with Scofield, Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart or how am I gonna say, “No,” to George Porter and Zigaboo [Modeliste] and go play the Meters music with them? How am I gonna say, “No,” to a night of crazy creative insane music with Nels Cline, Steve Bernstein, Julian Lage, Chris Lightcap and Billy last night? Or how am I gonna say, “No,” to playing with the Campbell Brothers the night before that? So many amazing opportunities that have come up…yeah, just going with it.
Then, I come back to New York tomorrow and I’m working with [John] Zorn and also with DRKWAV for a late night set. It’s all great music, great people.
JPG: What did you find when you originally played with Billy and Chris and do you find that same thing when you play with all the people you just listed as well as others?
JM: It’s different chemistry. Chemistry is different with everybody. I’m not looking for the same feeling from all the different things I play with. I’m definitely looking for a certain spirit to be there. When there’s chemistry, there’s a resonance that happens but it’s kinda beyond words. You just know it or you feel it. With Billy and Chris that’s why everything happened the way that it did. We got together, played and there was some kind of chemistry instantly. The very first thing we played together. We were at Billy’s loft and recorded it. We ended up transcribing it into a tune on our first record. The first improvisation was a tune called “Uncle Chubb.” It’s just what happened. We instantly started making music. At that time for me, having just moved to New York City, and being slightly disappointed in the jazz scene and its connection to creativity and whatever spirit jazz used to have…it still does have it when certain people play but it’s the idea of having a personality and creating something new…
When the three of us got together something clicked. There was definitely instant chemistry, making instant music. It wasn’t trying to be anything other than itself and that resonated in all of us. That’s why we knew that there was something there and pursued it. Usually, up to that point, you try to do this, you try to do that. You’re in this style, learning that style. Everything’s very derivative. Although all music is coming from somewhere and has roots in many things, it’s the spirit. And the spirit of Medeski Martin & Wood when we first got together was not remotely derivative. We were inspired by a lot of things but we were also pushing to really be who we were. A lot of musicians are very good at and spend their lives being something they want to be or something they should be or something that they think people want them to be that other people will like and naturally be themselves. The great ones do, the ones we love, the ones we admire, the ones we end up trying to copy. It’s kind of a loop. Medeski Martin & Wood didn’t feel like that.
JPG: Was that something in your mind creatively that you had a desire to do that or was it developed when you attended the New England Conservatory or after your dissatisfaction with the jazz scene in New York?
JM: It’s something I always felt. That’s where the dissatisfaction came. I played classical music. When I went to the conservatory I was a classical major. Disappointed may not be the right word. I knew I didn’t want to perform that music. I loved the music but what I really loved was what they were doing as composers, creating music. I wanted to be them not perform them. And, the same thing happened as far as my relationship to the jazz scene. It’s the greatest in terms of the highest level of so many aspects of music but when it’s not about listening and interacting and improvising and creating then I’m not interested in it.
Also, I tried to be realistic about who I am and who we were and honoring the era that we grew up in and the music that surrounded us as we grew up. We don’t have to pretend that we’re from another era where all these things that happened happened. We’re trying to be informed by everything going on in the same way that the popular music of the time informed the great jazz musicians. They would use the song forms and chord changes and structures of popular songs and write new melodies and create a new melodic and rhythmic language. Medeski Martin & Wood took that idea and reinvented it in our own way.
JPG: What I find interesting about the three of you is how you developed quickly. I’m used to college jazz ensembles that are more in tune with big band orchestras with some students going off and doing their own thing as well. So, I’ve seen that schooling process firsthand more so than an emphasis on improvisation and incorporating other musical elements.
JM: That’s easy to do. In a big band a lot of the music is written out. It’s predetermined. It’s doesn’t require deep levels of communicating with the music language. It requires other things — rhythm and listening and being in tune. Believe me, I played in big bands a lot growing up. I love the music, but it’s like being on a sports team. There’s a collective energy, it’s great. But there needs to be a balance, I think. When I went to conservatory I played in a big band and I played with George Russell’s big band (The Living Time Orchestra) and I played with several big bands outside of school. I loved it but you also have to find your own thing. As a musician, especially a jazz musician where improvisation is involved, you need to work on finding your own voice.
The department I ended up in when I left the classical department, which was called Third Stream at that time and is now called Contemporary Improvisation, and their whole thing was developing your personal style through advanced ear training by looking at yourself and thinking “What do I really love?” and absorbing these musics that you love whether it’s punk rock, Sephardic music or Moroccan, jazz, folk songs, whatever it is. You absorb that and really get to know it. Then, you just internalize and it naturally starts to come in your music. You do it through your ear, learning to sing the stuff and deep listening, which is something you can teach but you can’t teach. You need to do it, which means really listening in a way that you’re taking it into every cell of your body and developing your aural memory, which has a lot of levels; your aural memory, just being able to remember the logistics of the melody or a song but also to really have within you, almost in a cellular way, the nature of a piece of music.
You don’t need to learn a lot of things. You can do that with a few things. It’s just about picking the right stuff. To absorb it that way…say I like Thelonious Monk and then I’d find pieces of music that you know are going to give you what you need and then really learn them.
JPG: Was that something that was in your head and your soul that you felt you needed to do and that’s why you left the classical department?
JM: Well, I’d always played jazz and I loved jazz. I just did both. When I first went to school my idea was, “Why would I go to school for jazz? I’d just move to New York City.” I thought, “Alright, I’ll go to school if I’m gonna look into getting a degree.” Then, going there and seeing from one angle there was an open-mindedness at the Conservatory that there wasn’t at Julliard or a truly classical-oriented music school. It gave me the understanding that I can get something else out of school (slight laugh), and I can study non-Western Music, jazz theory and I can use the school as way to dive into a lot of different music and absorb it and broaden my palette.
JPG: At your upcoming Cleveland shows you’re playing with a wide range of artists: Marc Ribot, Steve Bernstein, Cyro Baptista, DJ Logic, DJ Olive…
JM: Those are all our New York peeps from the early days; people we collaborated with. We play with different people but mainly we’re a trio and if certain people add a fourth dimension to what we do so that’s why we’re picking off a lot of our favorites and out of who was available for those gigs.
JPG: Those shows are you going to chronicle them? Audio? Video?
JM: We’re shooting a whole film in Cleveland, the beginning of a documentary.
JPG: There was a tweet from Billy saying about new material coming out this fall. One website reported it as an announcement that you were working on a new album.
JM: I’ll have to ask him.
JPG: Unless he’s working on a new album.
JM: I’m sure he is. We all are individually. We talked about it but I can’t quite reveal yet because we haven’t talked to some of the other people involved to see if they want to do it or not. We have some ideas, definitely next year do another record.
JPG: In the band bio, you mention the band’s musical sensibilities as “wide open.” That relates to this. I found my MMW preview I wrote during the Shack-Man tour. I asked this question to Chris. So, with the passing of time I’ll now ask you. What is Medeski Martin & Wood?
JM: I still have no idea and that’s why we’re still together.
