Boy, is it ever. From the setting to the instrument to the very label it’s appearing on, John Medeski’s aptly named forthcoming album speaks to a different time — a time long, long before his more recent genre-melting experiments

Accomplished musical alchemist Billy Martin has taken an opportunity away from Medeski Martin and Wood to rekindle an idea he had years ago — combining ragtime and funk with trumpeter Steven Bernstein.

For those looking for more of Billy Martin’s well-established sound as part of the next-gen jazz trio Medeski Martin and Wood, this new title is likely perfectly named. Turns out Martin has long had a passion for New Orleans street music.

Another New Music Monday, another truckload of cool sounds — this time from the likes of John Hiatt, Lee Ritenour, Medeski Martin and Wood, Shemekia Copeland, Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris and the Gaddabouts, among others.

Most bands tend to constrict themselves by setting up parameters or sticking to a formula within which they operate, in order to create a sort of trademark sound.

Medeski, Martin & Wood has cast such a long shadow over the whole acid jazz movement for so long that the MMW can no longer be considered merely a band, it’s a franchise.

At the same time that Miles Davis was pioneering a spacious, hypnotic type of jazz-rock fusion, his recently departed drummer Tony Williams was inventing a more explosive, intense variety of fusion borne of hard-nosed jamming originally with guitarist John McLaughlin and organist Larry Young.

Legendary Cream bassist Jack Bruce is part of a new supergroup, this one featuring Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid. Check them out here!

The surface comparisons were nearly impossible to ignore and, I have to admit, I immediately associated the Bad Plus to Medeski Martin and Wood.

Last fall MMW kicked off the first part of their Radiolarians trilogy with Radiolarians I. Earlier this month, Part 2 came out. As with Part 1, Radiolarians II has many of the threesome’s astonishing range, sharp musicianship and unpredictability on display; it’s atypical nature makes it a typical MMW album, if you know what I mean. That said, there’s a [...]