by: Sean Boy
Medeski Martin and Wood have been at it for a good decade. They re just as now today as they were back in the early and mid nineties. No easy feat considering they avoided the whole acid jazz trend never giving into the genres narrow trappings and clich? Their tendency towards collaboration have kept things fresh, especially in light of the musical company they keep: Dan the Automator, Bill Laswell, and on this record, Uninvisible, the horn section from Antibalas, DJ Olive and DJ P Love. Although Medeski Martin and Wood work with excellent musicians, it s not a case of hired hands. The various musicians are brought into the band s Brooklyn studios,
Shacklyn, for improv sessions which act as the backbone for album tracks. Songwriting is not left to one individual. Instead, the musicians are invited to throw their sounds into the mix as part of MM&W s spontaneous composition. The three principles never have the chance to rest on their laurels. They re constantly challenged to keep up and work with an ever-changing cast of risk taking musicians, The end result this time is Uninvisible an album that never settles into one sound or mood. The latter part of the title track ends in a bleating of cacophonic city-sounding automobile horns then bleeds down into the gospely intro of I Wanna Ride You. Theres a few experimental-type pieces, bass heavy downtempo tracks, hip-hop flavored beats, and a smoked out lounge jazz number, tweaked out just so, with downtrodden groans, sighs, and nose-whistles coming deep out of nowhere. While other artists work frequently with recorded samples, Medeski Martin and Wood sample and draw inspiration from the actual flesh and breath from their exceptional collaborators.
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