Medeski, Martin & Wood are an improvisational jazz trio who are as popular in the jam band world as they are with a hard core jazz audience. Based in New York, they’ve been together now for nearly twenty years. With countless live performances under their belts along with about twenty studio recordings they are a band at the peak of their musical powers. John Medeski plays the organ, piano, and electric keyboard. Billy Martin is the drummer and percussionist. Chris Wood plays the bass. Recently they started their own record label called Indirecto Records and the result has been a slew of new music. In fact, on November 24th the band will release a box set called “Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set.” This comes after the release of three CD’s called “Radiolarians I,” Radiolarians II,” and Radiolarians III.” Musically speaking, things have never been better or more creative for Medeski, Martin & Wood.

Keyboardist extraordinaire John Medeski has performed with musicians as diverse as Jaco Pastorius to Iggy Pop. He’s also toured with both Trey Anastasio and Phil Lesh. Earlier this decade he had a band called The Word which played a bluesy gospel style of music and featured Robert Randolph along with Luther and Cody Dickerson of the North Mississippi All Stars. In 2006 he put together a band called The Itch with Eric Krasno of Soulive along with drummer Adam Deith. In addition to all of this John has written original music for three feature films. They include a 2006 movie called “Day on Fire” along with two other films set to be released in the next calendar year called “Audrey the Trainwreck” and “In Praise of Shadows.” This phone interview took place on the afternoon of Wednesday September 23rd 2009.

BH – Tell me a little about the new box set that Medeski, Martin & Wood is releasing in November?

JM - "It's all the stuff from the Radiolarians. It's all three discs and each one has a bonus track. Then there's also a live CD. There's a remix CD with remixes by DJ Spilky, Dan the Automator, Scotty Hard, DJ Logic, DJ Olive, Mr. Rourke, a whole bunch of people. And there's also a DVD which has a film made by Billy Martin. It's sort of the making of the Radiolarian stuff along with some stuff on the road called Fly in a Bottle. There's also some bonus material in there too that's pretty good. There's a pretty wild video by this guy Grey Gersten and another short snippet video that Billy did, a kind of crazy one. There are also two vinyls with selections from Radiolarians that we thought would be cool to hear on vinyl. Obviously we couldn't fit it all."

BH – With all this new material is this the best creative surge your band has ever had?

JM - "Well I guess in terms of CD output for sure. But now that we have our own label we can do whatever we want. So it has been nice to be able to do it this way. The problem is that people don't buy CD's. (LOL) We've managed to try to get as much stuff out as we could in the past when we were on record labels. And we were able to squeeze something out between our record deal with Ryco and Bluenote. We were able to get the Tonic CD out which made for two records in a year which was good for us."

BH – You have a disc called “A Go Go” that you made with John Scofield. Tell me how that came about? I understand he contacted you?

JM - "Yeah, he called us. He somehow got our one eight hundred fan line and left us a message. It was pretty funny. The story goes we were in Hawaii and we to into town to check our messages about once a week. And there's a message saying 'hi this is John Scofield' and we thought it was a joke by one of our friends just messing around. But is really was him and we did the A Go Go record."

BH – If someone like Scofield would call then I have to assume that you get offers from other guitarists on a regular basis?

JM - "Not as many as you think but definitely we hear it a lot from guitar players that they want to play with us."

BH – What is the song writing process for an instrumental trio like MMW? When does a jam session turn into something you want to record on a studio album? In other words can you describe the MMW songwriting process for me?

JM - "In the case of Radiolarians we did all that before we went on tour. We sat and we played and we created the music that we did over the course of each tour and at the end of each tour we would record that set of music. In general what we do is we play and either you hear something while you do it or you go back and listen to it if you recorded it. And what we'll do is we'll pick snippets out and we call them seeds. We listen to them and think about them and try to play them again and just develop them sort of like the way any composer would compose something. You take an initial impulse and write it down or remember it and decide that this is going to be something that defines this piece of music and then take it from there and develop it in whatever way that it leads you to develop it. And that's kind of what we do together. We talk about it and we say 'let's try this,' and if that doesn't work we'll try something else. We'll play a section for a while and then move to the next section. The thing about all of our music is that we like to improvise so every piece is a structure or framework that provides some musical elements to be improvised. We don't necessarily play the tune, then solo, and then play the tune. There are so many different ways to create structure and we try to explore a lot of them."

BH - Also, what is the thought process when it comes to naming these instrumental songs? Why is one tune called “Junk Yard,” another called “Walk Back,” and still another called “Free Go Lily” for example?

JM - "Well some of them are already named. Free Go Lily is an old traditional tune so that one is easy. Some of them, to be honest, they get working titles and sometimes those titles stick. And other times, as a tune really develops and starts to take on a life of its own, its name could be the name of the key with some indication of what’s going on musically. But then in that case it’s really not a very good title for a song. Usually after a song is created we start to think what is this? What does it mean? Then we try to come up with a name. It’s not really that easy and it’s kind of strange because in this day and age there are so many tech names for songs and the pop world created the need for these catchy titles.”

BH – Of course the jam band world is known for its one word song titles.

JM - “Yeah and the thing about instrumental music is that Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach, they didn’t title things. They were numbered like Opus one or Opus two. And in that way the music was beyond words. So a lot of times when we come up with a name we try to come up with something that is sort of poetically related. In general we just try to find a balance between something that is kind of abstract in the title yet it still relates to the song.”

BH – I’d like to touch on a couple of the new songs. I liked “Professor Nohair.” I assume that was a nod not just to New Orleans piano great Professor Longhair but also to your own hairstyle?

JM - “Yes, of course. The funny thing is that was a groove that we came up with a long time ago and we rediscovered it. Chris Wood would be the one to tell you which recording session it was from but it was years ago. We found it and thought it was pretty cool and we revisited it and we created that piece of music. That tune was called Professor Nohair from the second it started. It’s definitely a nod to Professor Longhair but also just to that New Orleans piano sound. I love that music.”

BH – Also the only song that wasn’t an original is “Baby Let Me Follow You Down.” Why did you guys cover that one?

JM - “Well, good question. I think Chris Wood actually suggested it. I mean we try a lot of things and over the years we have done the occasional cover. But when we do a cover it’s got to be something that we can really make our own and have something to say with that is ours. Yet I think the piece also is something that we don’t do a lot, whatever you want to call it, that twelve/eight bluesy ballad. So it was fun to throw that into the mix. Also, it’s a great tune. It’s bluesy and soulful but it’s not really blues in the traditional and formal sense of the blues. But it’s fantastic. And it’s an old song. Dylan made it famous but it goes way back.”

BH – Finally on the 3rd disc there’s “Koda.” I imagine you must be really proud of that one. It’s really a standout track.

JM - “Yeah, it’s cool. That was a stringy, plucky string instrument we played when we were in Japan. You play the strings with a pick and you press these little buttons that hold down and cut the string off at varying places that create the intervals. I sort of retuned it because it’s like five strings and they’re usually all tuned to the same note but I tuned them to chords. But yeah, we like that one.”

BH – You know John, for a jazz trio you guys have certainly been embraced by the jam band world.

JM - “The jam scene wasn’t around when we started. We have been part of it I guess since it started. We saw it develop around us. We saw it happen. When we first started that scene wasn’t there. I mean Phish was around and people were going to see Phish. And down south Widespread Panic was around. And we would go down south and play and we were hooking up with people like Colonel Bruce Hampton and some musicians who used to play with Sun Ra out in Birmingham. And we played with Michael Ray from the band Cosmic Crew. I don’t know if you remember him, he’s also played in Sun Ra’s band as well. It was a pretty wild and eclectic bunch of music. Also, there’s a promoter down in Knoxville named Chuck Burley who used to do Lollapalooza and I think he lost his shirt but it was a pretty amazing collection of music. This was really before the jam scene. In a lot of ways it sort of predicted the jam band scene, this eclectic pile of music all based around combining all different kinds of music from rock to jazz to whatever. And in a way the jam scene has grown, especially in terms of the audience. In some ways it’s really amazing and in other ways I think it could be more creative. But it’s an amazing scene and we’re grateful to be able to have people come out and hear us play.”

BH – In my opinion the jam scene started in August of 1995 when Jerry Garcia died.

JM - “The kids out there now barely know who the Dead are which is kind of mindblowing to me. They’re like the same age of the kids who were coming out twenty years ago. For them Phish was that band, which is kind of wild. The thing is I knew that there was a scene for what we did but I never listened to the Grateful Dead. I grew up playing jazz and I didn’t have anything against them it’s just not what I was in to. I was more in to the progressive jazz/rock stuff or fusion, whatever you want to call it. I liked Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Wonder but I hadn’t really heard the Dead. But when I was in college in music school I ran into a trombone player who lives in Charlotte North Carolina now and he and another guy were deadheads but they were also going to classical music school. And they had all kinds of cassettes of live Dead shows. I was in to collecting Coltrane bootlegs. But they dragged me to a show in Providence in the mid-eighties and when I was there it blew my mind with what was going on there, even outside of the music. And in the middle when they do the drums and space that whole thing I remember thinking ‘wow there’s like twenty thousand people here and they’re actually sitting through this.’ It made me realize that there are people out there looking for something more than your typical pop music. And to be honest at that time I had no idea I was even going to be an electric keyboard player in any way, shape, or form. At that time of my life I was just playing piano mostly. But I think at that show a seed was planted in my head that maybe twenty thousand people aren’t going to come out to see me but there’s got to be some fragment of those people that are also open and open minded enough. Because there was an open minded thing there that was kind of mind blowing, that these people are open minded enough to be ready for something new. For something that is improvised and a little more coming from jazz than let’s say the Dead was. Maybe there’s some who would like to hear drums and space all night? So we knew it was out there when we first went out and played. You know the first time I learned a Dead tune was when I played with Phil Lesh and Friends. And it was fun to really listen to their music and get into it. Of course everyone knows the sound and the classic hits just from being alive but I never really delved in to it. So it was fun to delve into it but way back then it really planted a seed that there’s a whole other culture out there of people looking for something more expansive in every way.”

BH – What are some of the future projects for John Medeski apart from MMW?

JM - “One of the things that I’ll be doing is a solo piano record. Also, I’ve been working with this guitar player named Tisziji Munoz. We’re in the middle of actually working on a three record project right now and we did a once a month run this summer up in Woodstock, New York. He’s an incredible guitar player and he’s also sort of a spiritual leader and guru of sorts. It’s definitely very powerful music.”

BH – Finally John, do you watch American Idol?

JM - “No but my parents watch it and I do end up seeing a certain performer here and there. I’m aware of it but I don’t watch it because I don’t really watch that much television. Where I’m coming from in terms of music is so the opposite of that. I want to get into the true source of music in its most ancient cosmic sense and healing sense. American Idol is the new way to make it in the music business for sure now that the whole hit record thing is over. Everything has its place but I am no longer that interested in music as entertainment although I love it and do enjoy music that is for that. But in terms of what I do I just don’t have time.”

As Medeski, Martin & Wood await the release of “Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set” they will continue a relentless touring schedule that will include a stop at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence on December 4th. Separately, John will be at The Stone in New York City for a run of shows in early November. Billy Martin will be there as well for a couple of shows. Chris Wood just wrapped up a handful of shows out west with his guitar-playing brother Oliver. The two tour as what else? The Wood Brothers! For additional information about Medeski, Martin & Wood just check out their website at mmw.net.