Medeski Martin & Wood prepare box-set release

By John Benson

You have to give experimental-jazz outfit Medeski Martin & Wood credit. When it comes time to release a box set, the unique threesome, which enjoys a large jazz following along with a healthy jam-band contingent, isn’t afraid of being ambitious.

On Nov. 24 MMW is scheduled to release “Radiolarians Evolutionary Set,” which includes: CD series “Radiolarians I, II, III,” along with additional bonus tracks (1 per CD); a film on DVD by Billy Martin; a “Best of Radiolarians” double gatefold vinyl; a CD of ten remixed tracks from DJ Logic, DJ Spooky and Dan the Automator; and a nine-track live CD featuring all previously unreleased material culled from the “Radiolarians” tours in 2008. So what in the MMW world is going on?

“The idea was to write as much music as we can so that we have a lot of fresh material, because that’s really the thing that excites us about playing is having a lot of new material,” said Martin, calling from New York City. “So it was sort of like the idea was we’d write a new set of music every season and then play it for the audience, develop that in our live shows and then, after the tour, go in and record it.”

To clarify, MMW toured three times in 2008, with each leg representing a “Radiolarians” volume. Eventually, the threesome had three different albums featuring unique material all under the “Radiolarians” umbrella.

“In a way, it just kind of gives us more repertoire, more material for us to go back and sort of pull out for our live shows,” Wood said. “It’s not like we’re touring on one record; we’re touring on three volumes of music, so that in a way is still fresher, and this is a lot of music that is still new to us and the audience over the past year. It’s just another way of kicking us in the butt to write more music and be fresh.

“The normal way or more common way is to write and record and then try to sell the record that way. We’re sort of doing it a little bit backwards. We’re sort of writing sketches; we developed it live in front of the audience, which is pretty much what ended up on the record and then released the record. The idea was to never play it again.”

So the fact that MMW is now touring “Radiolarians Evolutionary Set” with a Tuesday show booked at the Kent Stage means the band is being hypocritical?

“Yeah, basically,” Martin laughed. “We are hypocrites. The idea was never to play it again, but we can’t help it; we like the music too much, and the fans want to hear it, too. It’s still new to them and us.”

Hypocritical or not, the end result has proved to be a gold-mine affair for fans of MMW, which has continually moved forward and experimented with impunity, playing with acoustics, groove-oriented aesthetics, free-jazz styles and funk elements.

So with that in mind, there’s a sense that this is a special time for not only MMW but also its fans. For anyone who caught their favorite band in action during a special once-in-a-lifetime tour (U2’s “Zoo TV” concert at the old Richfield Coliseum or Radiohead’s “OK Computer” show at The Lakewood Civic Auditorium), the magic of seeing a band push its boundaries into a new creative realm is something unique.

“I’d like to think some fans feel that way about these shows,” Martin said. “This is a chapter in our developing a certain kind of music. This is where we’re at right now. It’s an evolutionary set, sort of like this snapshot of this body of music. And we’re not going to be playing this all of the time. We’re not going to revisit this. We’re going to keep evolving, so this is the season to catch us on sort of the end of the ‘Radiolarians’ period or chapter.”