Twenty Years Later: TAUK Covers Medeski Martin & Wood’s ‘Jelly Belly’

Following last year’s successful Songs Of Their Own video series of artists covering songs by the Grateful Dead, the Twenty Years Later video series features some of JamBase’s favorite musicians recording songs released in 1996. Looking back, the music released 20 years ago proved to be critical in both rock ‘n’ roll history and particularly within the jam band scene. The year 1996 saw seminal albums released by Phish, Dave Matthews Band, Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, moe., The String Cheese Incident, the Disco Biscuits, Keller Williams, Galactic, Medeski Martin & Wood, God Street Wine, Strangefolk and The Slip, helping to solidify the maturing jam scene.

There were also influential records issued in 1996 by the likes of artists as diverse as Beck, Jamiroquai, Modest Mouse, Rage Against The Machine, Johnny Cash, Pearl Jam, Sting, Tool, 2Pac and many others. The Twenty Years Later video series takes a look back at those releases, with participating artists covering songs from albums turning 20 this year. For this installment, TAUK just said yes to Medeski Martin & Wood‘s “Jelly Belly.”

The fourth album to be issued by the progressive jazz trio composed of keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood, Shack-man was recorded at and named after The Shack recording space on the island of Hawaii. The record’s ninth track “Jelly Belly” became a staple of the band’s setlists in late 1995 and was among the songs guitarist Trey Anastasio sat-in on during the famed pairing of MMW and Phish in Austin, Texas in October of that year. While MMW has been relatively quiet of late, according to Martin a new MMW album is set to be released this fall.

Up-and-coming instrumental quartet TAUK was in the Bay Area recently as part of their tour supporting Umphrey’s McGee. Members of Team JamBase met up with guitarist Matt Jalbert, keyboardist Alric “A.C.” Carter, bassist Charlie Dolan and drummer Isaac Teel backstage at the Fox Theater in Oakland. The foursome had just come off stage after opening for UM and set up using some of the headliners’ practice gear for the cover performance. The result can be heard and seen in the video below:

Head here to see all of the entries in the Twenty Years Later series. Stay on top of all of JamBase’s video content by subscribing to the official YouTube channel here.