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Lord, I love music... It's nice to just say that aloud every once in a while. It's made all the more easier when you spend a night seeing music that just puts a smile on your face. I'd have to say that any day I can get that grin and glow from music is a grand day, indeed. Saturday was such a day. The show in question was the Music For America benefit show featuring Medeski Martin & Wood at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC which began with much anticipation (as Marc Ribot was billed as a guest for the full show) and ended with a rare consensus from the crowd who all had that "Wow!" aura about them as they shuffled out onto Delancey.
MMW has contorted and redefined itself many times over since hitting the ground running almost ten years ago. I've always been a fan, but going into this show I realized I hadn't seen them in quite a while... probably more than three years. So going in I wasn't sure which MMW we were going to get. More than one person, before, during, and after the show, brought up the concept of multiple MMWs. In fact, there seem to be as many MMWs as there are colors of M&Ms: from acoustic jazz to free-flowing brain-funk to electronica-infused dance to just plain noise. And sometimes the band and the audience are able to just ignore the colors of those tiny little chocolate treats and just gobble them down by the handful until the bag is gone and you're longing for more. That was the MMW that came on Saturday.
From the moment this show was announced there was a certain "this is going to be good" feeling I was getting and I promptly made sure I had a ticket in hand as soon as they went on sale. The last few MMW NYC-area shows have been in the cavern of the Beacon Theater or as part of some multi-band outdoor festival (except for a special show at Tonic that I am still bummed I couldn't finagle my way into). This was going to be at the Bowery Ballroom, arguably the best room in the city. The Bowery breathes that elusive intimate vibe even when 600 people are packed in there for a show of this magnitude. It proved to be the right environment for the right show, the crowd was a friendly, scene-incestuous mix where the maximum degree of separation was probably two... if you didn't know the guy or gal next to you, you almost certainly knew someone who knew 'em. Let the good times roll and the whisky flow!
Much of the success of the show hung on Ribot's presence. There are two ways a guest musician can stand out at a show: one is by literally standing out with a couple ripping solos that elevate an already tight group to a shredding machine; the second is by not standing out at all, but by allowing oneself to be absorbed by the whole. The show was as hot as it was because of Marc's ability to be both of those guests. From trio to quartet, the jazz-funk roadster became a full-fledged rock 'n' roll tractor-trailer being pulled by the semi of Ribot's blistering guitar leads. Alternatively, Marc would disappear in the jams, his playing only apparent if one really concentrated on his work. Yes, there was a giddy, collective gasp after every Ribot solo, but perhaps his most impressive work went unnoticed to the naked ear.
A second guest was the ubiquitous DJ Logic, who also went a long way toward making this a "special" MMW show. Logic's presence was that of the second variety, which is where he is at his best. The pungent, smoky aromas of Combustication were in the air Saturday night as Logic knew just when to lay down some grooves or samples and just when to lay back and let the musicians take the helm.
Of course, there were Medeski, Martin, and Wood themselves. What can you say? When they are at their best they really are an ooey-gooey chocolaty treat. Chris Wood has become, flat out, one of the best bass players I have ever heard. It's amazing how he just seems to get better and better each time I see him. I couldn't help thinking during the show how I'd love to see him branch out into more projects beyond MMW (not that it's a restricting gig at all). Memories of his sit-ins with the Mule or Project Logic or KDTU make the tiny hairs in my ear stand on end. What was blowing me away Saturday was his work on the stand-up bass which, if it's possible, sounded more "electric" than his electric bass playing, which was insanely fun to listen to in its own right.
Between Wood's basstronics and Ribot's six-string scintillations, the rest of the musical space seemed more open for John and Billy to play around in. John Medeski, whose brilliantly unique organ playing has always been the unspoken core to the trio's initial success, seems to have gotten more voracious in his playing even as he has matured and mellowed a bit. Completely ensconced in a coat of many keyboards, John showed some serious dexterity maneuvering between the various pianos and organs on the stage. He still hammers and flails away at the keys of his organ, but less as an opportunity to make noise than as a rhythmic device. Saturday night Medeski was at his absolute best, painting wide swaths of sound with multiple instruments at once. The string section's trail of breadcrumbs allowed him to traipse around in the woods without fear of getting too lost. This was the key--so often the fear with MMW is that they're going to get "out there" and leave an itching audience with nothing to sink their grooving claws into. There was nothing to fear at the Bowery. That wonderful confluence of a groove-abiding crowd, the neighborhood-friendly confines of the Bowery Ballroom, and that "this is a special show" vibe opened a two-way channel between the stage and the floor. The band got into heavy, easy-to-love jams, the crowd reacted positively, the jams continued to explore in a positive way, the crowd continued to go nuts and so on.
What was neat about the show to me was that I didn't recognize any of the music for over an hour of the marathon set. Each piece of music could have been a well-choreographed ballet or an ad-libbed mosh pit of instrumentation--I wouldn't have been the wiser. I'm sure there were songs in there, but it's refreshing to not be worrying about it at all. Perhaps the best MMW schedule is once every couple of years (then again, add Ribot to the mix and I'm just about ready to go on tour with these cats). There was even a Latin-flavored number in which Marc sang vocals in Spanish. One of the "jams" kept rubbing me a certain way. You know that feeling, "I recognize this! What is this?" Finally, I decided it was either the greatest, most well concealed Medeskian cover of the standard "Summertime" or MMW&R&L was helping me lose my battle with my sanity. In true MMW fashion, there were "pieces"--I assume they were songs, but who knows--and then there was that space in between them. Every moment of a Medeski Martin & Wood show is an acre of musical space to be filled with sound. That in-between goo was gussied with the most free-jazz avant stuff of the night: small bits of perfect length which got just crazy enough before melting again into liquid grooves. While I recognize that this has always been part of the MMW M.O., it struck me as something straight out of Zorn's Electric Masada and with both Medeski and Ribot on stage, I don't think I'm too far off.
Late in the show, a couple of recognizable tunes were played which seemed to jolt the audience from a wonderful daze. We had all been taken on this 100-minute journey together and were snapped out of the hypnosis with a jolt of familiarity… We were on our way home. "Sugar Craft," the addictive lead track off Combustication, exploded off the stage with a sense of purpose. Logic shined in his element and the room was buzzing.
Finally, the set wound down swaying with the Hawaiian palm trees of "No Ke Ano Ahiahi," which was the only slow-down of the night and an easily identified highlight. Correct pacing in a show is so powerful and the placement and execution of this tune was impeccable. Billy Martin took the spotlight here even more than usual. Billy is a master of mixing his off-kilter drum style with the toy-for-every-hand mentality of a percussionist. Like every member of the band on stage Saturday night, Martin's playing could be chewed on for days as you let his polyrhythms fuck with the basic pulsing of your own body. On "No Ke Ano Ahiahi," he slows it all down so you can finally gather it up and make sense of it all, and in a word, it's beautiful. On the other end, Ribot took this already gorgeous song and elevated it to saintliness. Marc never fails to amaze me and once again Saturday night he showed off his ability to make sense of a situation and know exactly how to make it a better one.
They encored with another recognizable tune, this one off Shack Man, but I don't have the wherewithal to figure out what it was. Regardless, it was a perfect capper to a show that I don't hesitate to call a perfect MMW experience. I truly hope that it's not another three years before I see the trio play again, but if it is, I have faith that it will bring me to that place once again.
Aaron Stein
JamBase | New York
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