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Medeski Martin & Wood: The Dropper

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Capitol Records
Released: 2000
Time:
 51:13
Category: Jazz, Acid Jazz
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: *******... (7/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.mmw.net
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2001.01.05
Price in €: 16,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] We Are Rolling (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 7:06
[2] Big Time (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 3:23
[3] Felic (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 3:22
[4] Partido (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 5:44
[5] Illnization (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 2:31
[6] Bone Digger (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 2:22
[7] Note Bleu (J.Medeski) - 3:01
[8] The Dropper (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 3:30
[9] Philly Cheese Blunt (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 4:49
[10] Sun Sleigh (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 2:25
[11] Tsukemono (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 3:23
[12] Shacklyn Knights (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 4:46
[13] Norah 6 (J.Medeski/B.Martin/Ch.Wood) - 4:51

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


JOHN MEDESKI - Keyboards, Producer
BILLY MARTIN - Drums, Producer
CHRIS WOOD - Bass, Producer

SCOTTY HARD - Engineer, Mixing, Producer
HOWIE WEINBERG - Mastering
PHILIP HARWEY - Asissting
ANDY VAN DETTE - Asisting
LIZ PENTA - Management
DANNY CLINCH - Photography
CHIPPY - Art direction, Design

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


"Jazz is the teacher. Funk is the preacher." It's a maxim upon which Medeski, Martin and Wood have built a career. On The Dropper, they just happen to be doing a lot more preaching than teaching. Drenched in a gauzy fuzz, this disc scatters thumping beats, wild solos, and eerie, shadowed melodies across a landscape of cavernous groove. Although it's certainly not as accessible as earlier dance-friendly efforts, The Dropper is even more to wrap a brain around.

S. Duda, Amazon.com's Best of 2000



Whether Medeski Martin and Wood named The Dropper in the hip-hop and dance traditions of "dropping science" and "dropping the beat" or to name-drop a delivery mechanism for liquid lysergic acid diethylamide, the album is jazz's best bridge to all three in a long time. This is the perfect electric corollary to early 2000's acoustic blowout, Tonic, with MMW at full tilt from the album-opening growl that announces "We Are Rolling" (a double entendre, perchance?). Medeski jumps on his keys with such force that it's several tunes into The Dropper before you realize you've come through hazes and blazes of beats and billows to hear a pristine midrange piano. The more overtly beat-oriented sound of 1998's Combustication appears periodically here, but so too do wild alto sax windstorms--care of guest and Sun Ra band veteran Marshall Allen and guitar thunder from guest Marc Ribot (among other esteemed visitors). But the real push and pull of The Dropper come with on-the-one beats punching through thick storms of sound and leading the trio into sweet, soulful spots like the bossa-painted "Note Bleu." Colossal shape shifting is the order of the day. So drop on by.

Andrew Bartlett, Amazon.com



Spin (11/00, pp.203-4) - 8 out of 10 - "...Challenging....a quantum leap of inspired recklessness beyond anything [they] have recorded....dense and ominous..."

Jazz Times (12/00, pp.103-4) - "...Their most solid record to date....another nonstop, head swirling sonic trip..."

Downbeat (3/01, p.69) - 4 out of 5 - "...Gutsy and provocative..."

Alternative Press (11/00, pp.118-9) - 4 out of 5 - "...As modern-sounding and hip-hop-funky as the day is long....The most accessible keyboard-led threesome since Emerson, Lake & Palmer."

Mojo (3/01, p.91) - "...Hardly their most accessible work but its intelligence and character means that after you've lived with it for a while, it starts to sound almost normal..."



The Dropper, MMW's second album of the year and eighth overall, finds the threesome stretching their creative muscles beyond what's they've done before. The band has long been pigeonholed as a first-rate, second-generation organ trio that brought funky organ jazz to the jam-band scene. But these days, they're bent on moving into new territory: They released a remix album in 1999, and 2000's Tonic was a live acoustic recording on which keyboardist Medeski sounded more like Oscar Peterson than Jimmy Smith. The Dropper, though it reprises the electric side of the band, deconstructs the funk with a dub-like approach wherein odd production effects highlight instruments -- or spin them off into an echoey haze. Obviously not the kind of music that pulls dancers out of their chairs, The Dropper is a postmodern head-trip that once again proves this trio is more than a one-trick pony.

Tad Hendrickson - Oct 16, 2000 CMJ New Music Report Issue: 687
© 1978-1999 College Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.



I picked up the latest disc by the trio Medeski Martin & Wood and trying to categorize it, I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition.

(Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Their chief weapon is surprise and fear… their two weapons are surprise, fear, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope…among…their…weapons are surprise, fear, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and ruthless efficiency…)

But I digress. Our heroes in recent interviews have distanced themselves from the whole jam-band phenomenon. I suspect they plan to be around a lot longer than this latest flavor-flave of the month. And they will be. Formed in 1991, MMW revived a concept of the touring jazz band playing night-after-night, traveling in a van, and more importantly honing their craft.

Their 1993 Gramavision disc “It’s A Jungle In Here” was the coming out party for their sound, mixing jazz with say, reggae, or retooling soul-jazz with hip-hop beats, but evading the moniker of fusion. Their continual touring garnered an audience for the trio’s sound, playing in rock venues as opposed to traditional jazz clubs. MMW’s concept of giving the people what they want doesn’t involve watered down fusion or retro-bebop. Several records later, MMW released Combustication (Blue Note) and backed John Scofield on A Go Go (Verve). These two discs, along with their growing fanatic support, spun off a new jazz genre: the jam-band.

But they weren’t so eager to adopt this new genre. To paraphrase Groucho Marx, “They would not want to be a member of any genre that would have them as members.” Why, because MMW are jazz musicians, not bored rockers. They participate in what was once called ‘spontaneous composition,’ what we call improvising. Why they are successful is their jazz draws from a very modern palate, with hip-hop beats, organ-soul, and free-jazz. To make their point, they released Tonic earlier this year. This acoustic non-jam effort solidified the trio as an improvising force and chased all those nouveau-jazz posers out. What did fusion fans expect, the Spanish Inquisition?

(Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition…)

The Dropper returns MMW to the electric world. But the trio plugs-in to dropout once again. Aided by producer Scotty Hard (Wu-Tang Clan, P.M. Dawn) the beats are edgier, the music grainy-er, and the world-view harsher. Just as the Beastie Boys and US3 mined samples from the 1960s Blue Note classics, this release is packed with future gems for yet unborn samplers. Guest appearances by Sun Ra saxophonist Marshall Allen and the Rootless Cosmopolitan himself, Marc Ribot, should be a tip-off to this affair. “Felic” Allen’s squeal is surrounded by a percussion heavy (add Eddie Bobe’s congas) rhythm. Kind of reminds one of the Arkestra mission. With MMW (as with Sun Ra) beauty and harshness become fruitfully assimilated. Same goes for the three guest tracks by Ribot, his shred (or Shrek) surf guitar lands an un-sanitized reality groove.

This is gritty nasty jazz, part hip-hop, part industrial waste. MMW is looking into the 21st century and not seeing a bridge, but a chasm. When the hard-core jazz jury meets, some (insert jam-bands) will be dealt with harshly. John Medeski, Billy Martin, and Chris Wood will be knighted for their loyalty to the avant-groove. But no one can anticipate when the jazz jury will meet--just like the Spanish Inquisition--and by now you know that nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition…

Since we are so close to years end, I’ll confidently place The Dropper in my top ten albums of the year list.

By Mark Corroto
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