MMW at RIT and other acronyms ... plus: new comments field!

In the pursuit of making this a fully interactive b'log, I've decided to create a comments feature, with the help of Enetation. Feel free to leave opinions, praises, innuendos, offers, and of course comments. Just be nice about it or I'll shoot you an email telling you to fuck off.

Last night I went to RIT to see Medeski, Martin & Wood. Wow. I left mentally & physically drained, and in a stupor in general. And it wasn't because of the pot smoke wafting through the air either. These three guys are astounding, period. "Write it down," as Jaco said. Three gifted and highly-trained musicians playing totally off the cuff, with wild, experimental jams over loosely-interpreted changes and melodies. This took place in Clark Gym at RIT, not a huge venue, so everyone was up pretty close to these guys... it was a very intimate setting for a show, and you could see every detail, which was great.

John Medeski looks like a mad scientist behind his array of organs and keyboards. He lurches back and forth, arms wildly flailing, mouthing rhythms as he plays; he looks like a man possessed. With his hands chopping up and down so quickly it amazes me that he's still accurately hitting every key he intends to, sounding those altered chords. He's a pure genius, unrestrained.

Billy Martin has a knack for making noise with anything that can be struck, shaken or blown into near his drum kit. He plays not only on the drum heads & cymbals, but also taps rims, stands and anything else that will give him the results he needs. Next to him he keeps a road case with a vast collection of percussion... whistles, shakers of every variety, chimes, bells, ethnic drums and percussion, and a couple talking drums. His accurate yet loose pulse grooves harder than about anything I've heard, and his drum and percussion solos aren't big & explosive, like in rock, but clever and sly, stating ideas in an almost melodic way, and building in dynamics.

Chris Wood swapped back and forth between his electrics and upright, playing just the right bass for just the right tunes. As experimental as the others, he makes judicious use of his effects, both in terms of pedals and inventive techniques. He used a slide on his Hofner, and a drumstick to achieve an odd, high-register effect with the upright, bowed. His groove is unshakable, often establishing the pulse when Martin is becoming more sparse, and at other times only hinting at notes, using a staccato, hiccup style... true boogaloo bass. He took two solos on the upright, and played beautiful melodic ideas juxta-posed with intense outbursts, attacking his bass with ferocity. He'd pull the strings off the finger-board a la Mingus, slap all four stings, tap on the body to produce percussion, then suddenly quietly strum chords, like a classical guitar. I'm not sure whether I want to practice my upright harder or just set it down and cry.

They closed out the show by coming down-stage to play, un-amplified. Wood on his dog-house, Martin with a talking drum, and Medeski with a toy piano operated by blowing through a tube. And he ripped on it. He interspersed innocuous melodies with wild, altered interpretations & proceeded to crank out incredible solos. On a toy piano. Definitely the best show I've seen in ages... I'll be back for more MMW when they come close again... Ithaca I think, in late fall/early winter.

Of course after seeing that it'll be tough to go to band practice & play the same songs in the same way we always do. Fuck it, I think I'm going to go down there & rock the boat & make some noise. Stir things up & see if the lads follow along... it could be great fun as long as nobody gets a stick up their ass about some freedom.

More to come later...