MEDESKI MARTIN AND WOOD — Combustication (review)

MEDESKI MARTIN AND WOOD — Combustication album cover Album · 1998 · Eclectic Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
M.Neumann
MMW's first album for the distinguished Blue Note jazz label was, ironically, also their most wildly adventurous effort to date. Added to the trios already playful blend of roots (from be-bop to prog rock, and beyond) was an even stronger hip-hop and psychedelic influence, with notably more electronic instrumentation. Credit guest star DJ Logic for the distinctive turntable scratches and oddball sound samples, but despite the radical update it's still a Medeski Martin and Wood album, always unpredictable and cooler than ever.

Exactly how cool is it? Name me another album combining trippy luau music (the traditional Hawaiian spiritual "No Ke Ano Ahiahi"); a stuttering jam played over a lackadaisical spoken narration ("Whatever Happened to Gus"); and an almost unrecognizable Southern gospel cover of Sly Stone's 1968 hit "Everyday People".

And, after the aptly-titled album closer ("Hypnotized"), there's a hidden bonus track: a completely free-form improvisation mixing atonal strings, eerie organ chords, and traces of Mellotron over a furious bed of manic percussion and throbbing bass.

...a quick postcript: My thanks to author Edward Macan for introducing me to the music of MMW, in an appendix to his massive (and highly recommended) study of the Prog Rock supergroup Emerson Lake and Palmer ("Endless Enigma", Open Court Press, 2006). The book includes a critical selection of other keyboard-bass-drum combos, and cites this 1998 album from the acclaimed Brooklyn trio as an ideal example of their unique sound.

No, "Combustication" doesn't sound anything like ELP; the tripartite configuration is the only thing the two groups have in common. But, as professor Macan himself concludes, with his trademark erudite understatement, "Fans of ELP (or seventies prog more generally) who are willing to understand 'progressive' as an aesthetic philosophy, an attitude of approaching music, rather than a fixed sound, will find much to appreciate here." I couldn't have said it better myself.
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