It had been a whopping fifteen years since I last saw Medeski, Martin & Wood (at the Ritz in Raleigh, NC, during the Combustication days, if anyone’s counting), so I was grateful to get another bite at that apple on one of my final shows of the year. The addition of the guitarist John Scofield, the band’s longtime collaborator, made this show at Terminal 5 a special treat.
MMW always straddled the line between being a serious jazz unit and serving up the more funky, R&B and blues-driven music that endeared them to the jam band scene, which has always orbited around the band even though they’re not really a perfect fit for it. With Scofield in the lineup, the band becomes a bit more of a “rock” band, and that made Scofield an especially worthy addition in this cavernous room.
To that end, the first set of the performance worked better for me, kicking off with a few minutes of improv before delving into “Sham Time”, the leadoff track from the foursome’s 2014 album Juice, followed by perhaps the moment of the show, “Juicy Lucy”, featuring Martin’s mother Jean and Jerry Paris dancing together onstage. From there we got an older MSMW tune, “Chank”, followed by two more from Juice.
The second set fell into the trap that I think befalls too many otherwise-talented bands followed by the “jam band” faithful — the curse of the Rock Canon. I find it unfortunate when a musician of any stripe can’t bring themselves to churn out something more inventive than covers of the best-loved songs of the sixties and seventies, but it’s especially unfortunate coming from what is ostensibly a jazz outfit. Each of “The Times They Are A-Changin'”, “Sunshine of Your Love” and The Doors’ heinous “Light My Fire” can be found on Juice, and none did much credit to these musicians on that album or in the room on this night. While the quartet found some new solo-worthy material to mine in each song, the fact remains that these three well-worn hits are better suited to a jukebox, rather than half of a live set by a band that’s still making quality new material.
That quibble aside, I’m excited to have seen MSMW for the first time, and to have (finally) caught MMW again after so long of a break.
I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones right at the soundboard, into the Aerco custom preamp for extra warmth and realism. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!
Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]
Stream the complete show:
Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood
2014-12-11
Terminal 5
New York, NY USA
Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acid jack
Schoeps MK41 (at SBD, DFC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Aerco MP-2>Sony PCM-D50>24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter, imaging)>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (light dynamics)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )
Thanks to aaronji for the setlist/tracking assistance
Tracks
Set One [Time 52:06]
01 [improv]
02 Sham Time
03 Juicy Lucy
04 Chank
05 North London
06 Helium
07 [banter]
Set Two [Time: 1:02:14]
08 Louis the Shoplifter
09 Little Walter Rides Again
10 Sunshine of Your Love
11 I Know You
12 Light My Fire
13 [banter2/encore break]
14 The Times They Are A-Changin’
If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT MMW, visit their website, and buy Juice from the band.
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