Category: Jazz

Medeski Martin & Wood – 20th Anniversary Tour hits Chicago

Medeski Martin & Wood brought their 20th Anniversary Tour to Chicago’s Park West last Friday, November 4th. To celebrate 20 years, the band has been playing a first set of fan requests, and calling the second set a “shack party” full of spontaneous improvisations.

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For the first set, the band opened with the super rare tune Shack from Friday Afternoon In The Universe (a tune that hasn’t been played live since 2003!), which segued into a super charged Pappy Check (my request) that included an illyB drum solo before a funky bridge section that only MMW could pull off.

Next was an oldie that tends to get played pretty often, Dracula, which I thought brought the energy down. But, hey, I don’t question these players. Next up, John brought the energy level way up by tearing into his Wurlitzer electric piano on I Wanna Ride You, somehow making it look effortless to play like he does.

I was surprised to find that another one of my requests made the cut, Toy Dancing. Not played live since 2006, this version was somewhat exploratory and expansive. At this point, something happened that I’ve noticed frequently in MMW sets: John looks up about 3/4ths of the way into the set and realizes that he hasn’t touched the acoustic piano yet, so he sits down and goes to town for over 6 minutes. By the time Billy & Chris reel John back in, the tune ends up over 12 minutes long.

Lastly, they closed the first set with the perennial crowd favorite, Bubblehouse. Bubblehouse was played at every show on the first leg of their 20th Anniversary Tour back in March and so far has been played at every show on this leg of the tour. After years of fans screaming for the song and years of the band neglecting to play it, perhaps out of spite, MMW decided to give the crowd exactly what they asked for: BUBBLEHOUSE!

SET TWO: Improv, Moanin’, Improv
ENCORE: Night Marchers

You can watch set two right here, although I cut off the first 15 minutes of improvisation, as it wasn’t very inspired. This video includes the second 15 minutes of improv, the Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers / Bobby Timmons cover, Moanin’, the next 23 minute improv (including a dubby section with John on melodica, as well as another short illyB drum solo), and the encore, Night Marchers.

Parts of the video are shot with a second camera (actually my iPhone 4) from up front and the audio was recorded by taperjoe with Sennheiser E914 condenser mics (audio download available here). Stream this baby to your HD TV, pop some popcorn (or gather whatever other party favors you choose to partake in), sit back, and enjoy 52 minutes of MMW in awesome HD quality.

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If you’re looking for more tasty Chris Wood bass playing, check out these videos of The Wood Brothers I shot this summer at Headliners in Louisville, KY on June 2, 2011.

Postcards From Hell:

Sing It Again (Beck cover):

Atlas:

The Luckiest Man:

Shoofly Pie, Chevrolet:

Roy Ayers live with Robert Glasper Experiment & Pete Rock

Roy Ayers, Peter Rock & The Robert Glasper Experiment – July 9, 2011 @ North Sea Jazz Festival – We Live In Brooklyn, Baby

This week I want to hip you to the Robert Glasper Experiment. This group has seamlessly melded jazz and hip hop like no one else. We’re talking about Robert Glasper on piano and fender rhodes, Chris “Daddy” Dave on drums, Derrick Hodge on bass and Casey Benjamin on sax and keytar/vocoder.

Roy Ayers is another artist that is known for melding genres by forever blurring the lines between jazz, funk and soul. So his pairing with the Robert Glasper Experiment at last summer’s North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands was only fitting.

It all started back in April of 2010 when Revive Music Group organized a Roy Ayers Tribute in Harlem that paired the Robert Glasper Experiment with legendary hip-hop producer and DJ, Pete Rock, and contemporary jazz vibraphonist, Stefon Harris. (Check All The Way Live’s exclusive audio recording.) It was also at this April 24, 2010 tribute show that Roy Ayers himself was presented with a Legends and Legacy Award and joined the group for a rendition of his hit, “Searching.” (See the videos here.)

The Roy Ayers Tribute was performed again by the Robert Glasper Experiment, Pete Rock & Stefon Harris on September 11, 2011 in Paris, France. At that show, Bilal joined the group for an expansive and mind-blowing version of “Everybody Loves The Sunshine”. (The full video is on youtube and mp3s are known to circulate of both this show and the Robert Glasper Trio‘s performance with Bilal from the next day.)

This brings us to July 9, 2011, when the Robert Glasper Experiment & Pete Rock threw it down again, this time at the North Sea Jazz Festival and with Roy Ayers receiving top billing. Here I present the full audio recording, 68 minutes long, mp3 format, sourced from the North Sea Jazz Festival web video stream: http://www.mediafire.com/?8fc9l3dsb4bxq3s. Also, part of the performance is available as a DVD download here.

Here is the full info to go along with that mp3:
Roy Ayers with Pete Rock & The Robert Glasper Experiment
July 9, 2011
Congo, Ahoy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands @ North Sea Jazz Festival
SBD > video webstream (unknown kbps) > Cool Edit Pro > WAV > MP3

01. unknown instrumental
Roy Ayers enters:
02. Everybody Loves The Sunshine
Pete Rock enters:
03. Don’t Stop The Feeling
04. We Live in Brooklyn, Baby
05. Pete Rock spins records
06. Don’t Stop The Feeling

Roy Ayers – vocals, vibraphone
Pete Rock – DJ
John Pressley – vocals & percussion
Raeford Gaskins – saxophone
Robert Glasper – piano
Derrick Hodge – bass
Chris Dave – drums
Casey Benjamin – saxophone & vocoder keytar

Medeski Martin & Wood’s End of the World Party at New Orleans Jazz Fest 2004

Still on the Medeski Martin & Wood tip. If you’ve ever seen this Russian polka trio perform live then you’ve probably already been hooked, not only by their musical virtuosity but by their incessant grooves.




Today I present a full 2 hour video of MMW throwing it down at a 2004 late night show during New Orleans Jazz Fest. At the time, the band was fresh off of a west coast run of nine shows at small venues in which every show was complete improvisation. [I highly highly recommend dug’s five disc compilation: April Grooves 2004.]

After a few nights off MMW hit NOLA like a storm, busting out mainly new tunes from their End Of The World Party (Just In Case) album that they would release later that year. The first half of the show features the Sex Mob horns, Steven Bernstein on trumpet & Briggan Kraus on saxophone, and there is also a spacey improv section with Grant Calvin Weston on percussion and Briggan Kraus blowing some weird sounds on the sax. The encore also features the Sex Mob horns on one of John Medeski‘s classic tunes, Wiggly’s Way.

The full video is on youtube in 2 parts and the DVD version is available to download here.

Part 1/2:
Anonymous Skulls > Improv > Mami Gato > Down On Me
Sasa > Improv > Creole Love Call (w/ Snake Anthony bassline)

Part 2/2:
Drum Solo > Curtis > Bass Solo > Queen Bee
New Planet > Improv (w/ G. Calvin Weston & Briggan Kraus)
End Of The World Party
Encore: Whiney Bitches > Wiggly’s Way

Interesting tidbit: at the same time this show was occurring, David Bowie (with The Polyphonic Spree as his opening act) was playing literally across Canal Street at the Saenger Theater. It was a tough choice, but with two of my absolute favorite bands playing together, I just couldn’t miss this MMW / Ween co-headliner.

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