Medeski Martin and Wood jmixes in electronica with funky jazz

ROBERT MORAST
rmorast@argusleader.com

When introducing Medeski Martin and Wood, Allmusic.com says, the band "effortlessly straddles the gap between avant-garde improvisation and accessible groove-based jazz."

But what does that mean?

Is MMW a freak instrumental jazz outfit that borrows familiar phrases to outfit its musical experimentation? Or is this band - that sounds like a more intelligent update of The Beastie Boys' funk repertoire - a free-flowing jam band that just happens to tread water in the jazz pool?

Neither, actually.

"I don't think we need to be associated with anybody. I think we have our own thing," says Billy Martin, the group's drummer.

So says every musician who's ever found frustration with genre tags. But when Martin talks about his music, which will close down JazzFest Saturday night, his hesitation of classification doesn't sound ignorant or pretentious.

Rather, Knight sounds like he actually believes MMW doesn't fit into any category known musicologists or dedicated record store clerks.

For instance, when Knight is asked how far "out there" he'd like to take his music, the drummer quickly replies, "I'm doing it. So, I don't know."

Such disdain for form and function in the live show has allowed MMW to float from the avant jazz world of New York City to the stages of various jam band festivals across the nation.

Yet, while the neo-hippies have embraced MMW's danceable, groove-based jazz, Knight doesn't exactly reciprocate the love.

"We're improvisers. We jam. But a lot of the bands associated with the jam scene, they don't go as deep musically as we do," Knight says.

He's right.

MMW's ability to dive into a melody, deconstruct it and build something new from the simple, yet effective parts, has drawn comparisons to the work of Miles Davis.

In a festival called "JazzFest," any artist who invokes the name of Davis - a.k.a. "the coolest man ever" - has to be a boon.

Yet, since much of this year's lineup is filled with guitar-wailing bluesmeisters, could a sudden segue to MMW's formless funk send the cigar-chomping blues fans home?

"I think there will be some things about it that they'll dig," Knight says. "John (Medeski, keyboardist) has a really incredible sense of blues in his playing. ... But we have our way of saying those things."

Reach reporter Robert Morast at 331-2313.