The ninth album (minus compilations and remixes) from Medeski, Martin and Wood, NYC’s jazz masters, revisits some of their classic jazz/funk style and mixes in their newer interest in hip-hop beats.
“The Dropper” from the illustrious Blue Note Records once again reinvents the bass (Chris Wood), organ (John Medeski), and drummer (Billy Martin) trio. The band’s ability to create a new sound, style, and feel for each album harvested “The Dropper”. Their 1998 “Combustication” album, as well as their first live album “Tonic” (2000), heavily influenced this release.
Since their 1991 conception, Medeski, Martin, and Wood has brought their particular sound to the jazz fans of NYC and to the world. Describing an album of theirs is almost as hard as describing the band itself. MMW has become one of the loyally followed “jam bands,” but they reject that label like the rest.
Chris Wood told Bob Makin of JamBands magazine: “Because we’re living in the year 2000, not the ’40s and ’50s, jazz sounds different, especially when you’re truly improvising. You have the influences of all music that’s happened, including hip-hop, rock ‘n’ roll and all current types of music, not to mention other modern music, jazz, and contemporary classical music. We’re influenced by all those things and it just comes out naturally.”
It’s funk, jazz, rock, hip-hop; depending on the fan, you will hear a different name, but all will agree that their new release blends all of these tracks into a truly masterful piece of art.
Songs like “Big Time” and “Partido Alto” focus on their funk origins in “Shack Man” (1996), the album that put MMW on the map. Note “Bleu,” “Phily Cheese Blunt,” and “Shacklyn Knights” blend a Herbie Handcock circa “Thrust” smooth funk with jazz. “Tsukemono,” “The Dropper,” and “Illinization” resemble the sound of their 1995 album, “Friday Afternoon in the Universe,” with a free-form jazz sound.
Because of the improvisational free-form nature of “The Dropper,” it is not an airplay- friendly album. The only way to get a true essence of what MMW is trying to do is to listen to the entire thing. It is not like a Pink Floyd theme album, but, when the tracks are separated, they lose their rhythm and grace.
In a time of processed commercial music that relies more on marketing than talent, MMW continues to produce well crafted albums that have no comparison.