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Medeski, Martin & Wood
Jack Singer Concert Hall
Tuesday, June 23 - Tuesday, June 23

More in: Blues / Jazz

Those lucky enough to catch Medeski, Martin and Wood’s (MMW) first Calgary performance at the Night Gallery in the mid-’90s, witnessed some historical jazz in the making. No one was playing jazz like MMW. No one was playing music like MMW; but what may have struck people walking into the club was the band’s RV camper parked out front. According to bassist Chris Wood, those early days are exactly what the band is trying to relive with its new Radiolarians recording series — musically, at least.

“It was amazing,” recalls Wood. “A very romantic time in a way, because after each gig we’d have to find a state park or some sort of campground that accepted RVs. Here we were, this band — I don’t know what kind of band you would call us at the time but we were touring in this thing that looked like what an old retired couple would travel in. And then we’re ending up in these state parks right up next to those exact people. We’d end up in a lot of beautiful places, waking up in a gorgeous state park. It’s something that we could never pull off now.”

“You have to be young and gung-ho to do that kind of thing,” he continues. “We were all in our early 20s. We were unattached. We didn’t have mortgages. We were just out in the world doing our thing. We had all the time in the world to hang out together and let things unfold organically. But now, you know, we’re married. We have kids. Part of doing this was now just that logistical thing of getting older, to be perfectly honest.”

MMW isn’t reinventing the wheel with its Radiolarians series, but that was never the intention. What band hasn’t grown tired of the standard process of writing and recording an album, releasing the album and then touring endlessly to support it? Instead. MMW is turning the process on its head; write first, tour next and record last — and repeat the process twice more.

“It was the first chance for us to do our thing and write a whole bunch of new material together,” says Wood. “It was like the early days where we felt very independent — doing things our way, in our own time, just the way we wanted to do them. It was a way to get a whole batch of new material and to really reinvigorate the way we write together. But just as much, it was a way for us to celebrate our independence, because we’ve started putting out our own records again. It was kind of like when you get older and you have wives and kids, you have to schedule in those social engagements. You gotta make these things happen that used to happen spontaneously."

Recapturing the freewheeling spirit of their early days is the band’s ultimate goal. Not necessarily touring in an RV and not knowing where you’re going to sleep each night, mind you, but the good old days of spontaneity; the holy grail of jazz.

“It was recorded like a jazz record,” says Wood. “We didn’t agonize over parts. We didn’t do overdubs. It was fast. A few days before the first tour, we’d give ourselves four days of rehearsals where we’d come up with everything. And then playing those first gigs would show us what worked and what didn’t. The tour would last a couple weeks and then immediately afterwards we’d head into the studio to record it. It was mostly live, and I think that comes across. The whole thing has a feel and cohesiveness to it, but still being eclectic — but I guess we’ve always been that way.”