Farmer'S Reserve - Medeski Martin

Medeski, Martin & Wood: Chris Wood (guitar, acoustic bass); John Medeski (prepared piano, toy piano, synthesizer, caxixi); Billy Martin (drum set, talking drum, cowbells, rattle, wood block, caxixi, gong).
Fans used to this jazz trio's jam-oriented funk workouts will be in for a surprise with FARMER'S RESERVE. In fact, the release (recorded in 1997) finds Medeski, Martin & Wood foregoing the accessible groove-based music that brought them tremendous popularity, in favor an experimental session of improvising. In terms of instrumentation, the key difference between FARMER'S RESERVE and MMW's other albums is that John Medeski rarely touches his standard electronic keyboards. Instead, he plays prepared piano and toy piano, which gives the musical landscape an alien, dream-like cast, like a music box caught in a time-space warp.
Drummer Billy Martin also adds a great deal of texture with a battery of percussion (including gongs, cowbells, rattles, woodblocks, and talking drums), in addition to his regular trap kit. Chris Wood fills in the spaces with sinuous, well-timed lines on his sometimes-bowed, sometimes-plucked acoustic bass. The recording truly has the feel of a spontaneous improv session, and the responsiveness and musical telepathy between the three is mightily impressive. The trio got their start in New York's downtown avant-garde scene, and it is an appropriate and refreshing change of pace to see these fine musicians getting back to their roots with bold, expressionistic free jazz.

• Genre: Jazz
• Genre: Jazz
• Released: 4/17/2007
• Released: 04/17/2007
• Format: CD
• Format: CD
• Released: 4/17/2007