Re: New John Scofield/Medeski, Martin and Wood

Stimpson (stimpson@total.net)
Wed, 22 Apr 1998 00:47:38 -0400


Scofield's been moving away from the fusion thing a little bit, so a
change in direction doesn't really surprise me. He recently put out an
album of new soundtrack music for an old Buster Keaton film (don't know the
name of the movie; I'm not a Buster Keaton fan). While on tour for this
record, he would set up huge projection monitors and compliment the action
in the movie with his music, much like the piano players in the old silent
movie houses. Must have been a great concert experience, hearing a live
drummer underscore one of Keaton's classic pratfalls with a cymbal crash or
something similar.

In any case, a collaboration with Medeski, Martin and Wood necessarily
HAS to be loose and funky, as these guys are very serious about getting
their groove on. They're a organ (B3, Hammond, Wurlitzer, Clavinet, etc..),
bass, and drum/percussion trio who are very well known among the jazz-funk
circles, and definitely worth checking out, especially if you're into the
whole 70's Herbie Hancock/Headhunters organ sound. I've noticed that all
three of them, especially the organ player (Medeski) have been getting a
whole lot of session work lately , appearing on every concievable new jazz
recording, so I think the word's beginning to spread about these guys. If
you're curious, I highly recommend getting their last recording,
"Shack-Man". It's serious organ jazz-funk, put out by Rykodisc in 1996.
Anyone who might wanna know a little more can feel free to email me; I'll
dig up my records and see what else I can tell you about them.

Hey, this was a John Scofield thread wasn't it? Oh well........

Stimpson
-----Original Message-----
From: Elson Trinidad <elson@westworld.com>
To: acid-jazz@ucsd.edu <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Date: Tuesday, April 21, 1998 10:13 PM
Subject: New John Scofield (yes, THAT John Scofield...)

>
>
>Surprised no one's mentioned it here (which is why I hadn't found out until
>recently).
>Turns out fusion guitarist extraordinaire John Scofield has been bitten by
>the groove bug and released an acid-jazz album, with a little help from
>these three musicians...I think they go by the name of Medeski, Martin and
>Wood or something. :)
>
>Anyway, the drummer from my band has been raving about this thing. I think
>it's cool, though not as thrilling as, say, Charlie Hunter, but Scofield
>and MMW seem to complement each other nicely; Scofield's guitar work gives
>MMW a dimension that was previously missing in previous MMW efforts, and
>the raw grooves of MMW save Scofield from corny status (a typical condition
>when contemporary fusion artists want that acid jazz sound).
>
>At least this will give me and my Scofield-worshipping guitarist friends
>something to agree about.
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>Elson
> - 30 -
>
>:. elson trinidad * los angeles, ca, usa
>:. elson@westworld.com * www.westworld.com/~elson
>
>
>