Who: Heatbox (opening for Medeski Martin and Wood)
Where: Trocaderos
When: 4.19.09

Review of the show can be found here on JamBase.

Who: jazz trio Medeski Martin and Wood,with special appearance by Dr. Lonnie Smith
Where: Trocaderos in downtown Minneapolis
When: 4.19.09

A review of the show along with more photos can be found here on JamBase.

Tomorrow a new week begins. I just spent the last 3 days studying my butt off through MMW and now that I completely understand the material, I’m strangely content. I feel very prepared for my midterm tomorrow and if  I don’t do well, well at least I tried my best.

I also have a Cognitive Science midterm tomorrow. I have yet to study for that and it’s a P/NP class so I’m not as worried.

This week looks like an inviting week. No class on Wednesday (exploring San Diego on Wednesday) and class selections on Friday.

This week I will:

visit counseling services and arrange an appointment to clarify some personal matters

catch up on all my classes

write 2 term papers

turn in my application to The Guardian that I finished a month ago…I know…I’m lazy, okay?

go to office hours to discuss my term paper that I’m planning to write

visit the beach

take more pictures

clean my room (if my mother saw my room at the moment she will possibly faint from the cluttered amounts of stuff everywhere before she starts cleaning the room…)

applications

catch up with some friends I haven’t seen in a while

write more letters

start the journal I said I was going to write

enjoy more alone time

So, I was skeptical of the Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set for the three great jam/jazz albums that I already had, until I saw what Medeski Martin & Wood were offering in the boxset… all three CDs, a remix CD, a live album, a double vinyl with choice cuts, and a DVD…

(click for larger)

(click for larger)

Plus… pre-order by 11/10/09 and get 20% Off retail price and be entered to win 2 Free Tickets to an MMW concert on their Nov/Dec tour!  Pre-order by 11/30/09 and get a Free T-shirt from their “Free Tee Department.”

Find out more at MMW.com’s store HERE.

Let’s just say, “I listed my current Radiolarians on Amazon for sale used”…

~Dan – np: Piano Magic – Ovations

Airline travelers are quite used to metal detectors and x-ray machines by now.  And they may be getting used to what I call “the puffing thing,” but is referred to as a trace portal machine by the TSA.  (That’s the device that you walk into, and it puffs air at you, analyzes bits of debris it has dislodged, and lets you go on your merry way.)   Travelers are probably not yet used to the millimeter wave scanner, which I experienced over the weekend in DC.

For the uninitiated, the millimeter wave scanner is essentially radar for your body, and it allows the government to see through your clothes.  Supposedly, if you don’t want to let them do that, you’re supposed to be able to say, “No, I’d rather you pat me down instead, thank you,” and there’s supposed to be a sign saying so:

In my experience, though, I didn’t see that sign.  I could have been distracted, though, and I just wanted to come home.  So whatever, I went into the thing, and someone somewhere got to look at me through my clothes.  Hope they had a good time.  I did think that the machine, apart from being irritating and an invasion, had some flaws.  For one thing, at the end of the scan (which did go quickly) they asked me to put my arms out in front of me.  The problem with that, though, was that my hands would extend outside the machine.  Not sure if it matters, but it led to awkward movements.

Anyway, this post is titled “Biometrics and the TSA,” not “Adventures with MMW.”  This is because, in addition to the puffing thing (which costs about $160,000 a device, and which apparently don’t work very well) and the MMW scanner (which costs about $120,000), CNN is reporting on a brand new way of screening passengers:  The Wii Fit.

“Researchers took a Wii balance board — a device people stand on to interact with certain Nintendo Wii video games — and altered it to show how someone’s weight shifts. Studies are now under way to determine whether there is a level of fidgeting that would suggest the need for secondary screening.”

There’s a reason why polygraphs aren’t generally admissible as evidence in trial, and that is because biometric data is unreliable to interpret.  See, e.g., Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013, 1014 (D.C. Cir. 1923) (“the systolic blood pressure deception test has not yet gained such standing and scientific recognition among physiological and psychological authorities as would justify the courts in admitting expert testimony deduced from the discovery, development, and experiments thus far made.”)  Frye isn’t the best case to cite, however, as it has been overturned, questioned, and superseded on a variety of grounds, and it is true that polygraphs and other technologies (such as the plethysmograph) are used in other aspects of prosecution (such as supervised release and the like). Nonetheless, it states pretty clearly the problem of using the body’s biometric functions to determine guilt or innocence.

All in all, biometric interpreters are dicey things to start implementing at airports, where stress levels are undeniably higher than in the controlled environment of a trained polygrapher’s office.  How accurate will the Wii’s Balance Board (or whatever extrapolation of the technology is devised) be when the subject needs to pee, is tired, is irritated at her husband for forgetting to make car rental reservations, and is angry at little Timmy for swallowing that penny he found on the floor?  It’s just one more impediment to the vast majority of us who aren’t doing anything wrong.

As an interesting aside, it does make me think of a story in Wired from March of this year, where defense attorneys wanted to introduce evidence from an MRI to establish a defendant’s innocence.  (The request was apparently withdrawn later that month.)  In short fMRI works this way:

Laboratory studies using fMRI, which measures blood-oxygen levels in the brain, have suggested that when someone lies, the brain sends more blood to the ventrolateral area of the prefrontal cortex. In a very small number of studies, researchers have identified lying in study subjects with accuracy ranging from 76 percent to over 90 percent. But some scientists and lawyers like Greely doubt that those results will prove replicable outside the lab setting, and others say it just isn’t ready yet.

(Source is the Wired article, with internal linking omitted.)

So, in diesem Monat verleihen wir nur einen Preis: Den MVP Award für die meisten Klicks im vergangenen Monat. Vorher aber (wie eigentlich immer) Werbung in eigener Sache:

Plan B bei School of Rock

Kommt zahlreich und bringt alle eure Freunde mit. Es ist für einen guten Zweck und wir haben fleißig geübt, um euch mit neuen Stücken und einmaligen Performances mit Gastsängern zu überraschen. Drei Proben mit einigen Gesangstalenten sind nun schon gelaufen und ich verspreche euch, dass euch einige Songs noch lange im Kopf bleiben werden. Jetzt aber zur Preisverleihung.

MVP Award – August 2009

(An dieser Stelle müsst ihr euch jetzt den Trommelwirbel denken.) Auch in diesem Monat gibt es eine Wachablösung an der Spitze. Vielleicht nicht überraschend, aber mit großem Vorsprung gewinnt das Bandmitglied mit der engelsgleichen Falsettstimme.

Seitenaufrufe des jeweiligen Bandmitglieds im August 2009

Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Sebastian! Um diesen Anlass würdig zu zelebrieren, verlinke ich einfach mal ein weiteres Video von Sebastian. Hier covert er Drifting von Andy McKee. Und gibt nebenbei mit seinem Flachbild-TV und seinem E-Piano im Hintergrund an. Viel Spaß dabei!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNF0fwI8n68

Sebastian - Gewinner des MVP Awards im August 2009

9tes Video von Waldniel online

Ja, auch das soll hier mal erwähnt werden, obwohl es schon etwas länger auf Youtube zu sehen ist. Einige haben es sicher auch schon gefunden, hier aber die Zusammenfassung für alle, die es noch sehen wollen: Jana dirigiert das Publikum bei 99 Luftballons, Jens rappt noch ein bisschen bei Tubthumping, wir spielen einen Ärzte-Medley und schließen souverän mit einem Marius Müller-Westernhagen-Klassiker ab. Hier ist der Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCEukPtLXnw

Plan B im studiVZ

Unsere Lieblingssängerin Jana hat im studiVZ die offizielle Plan B Gruppe gegründet. Die existiert auch schon was länger, aber hier ist nochmal der genaue Hinweis mit Link zur Gruppe:

http://www.studivz.net/Groups/Overview/423953bd37abe01a

Christian hat eine Gruppe speziell zu dem School of Rock-Auftritt gegründet. Diese findet ihr hier:

http://www.studivz.net/Groups/Overview/d03c788f4b8d0864

Ansonsten sind alle Mitglieder von uns auch im studiVZ zu finden. Wer sich die Mühe machen will, kann uns gerne suchen.

Plan B beim Oktoberfest in Schwalmtal

Wir können hiermit auch bekannt geben, dass wir einen weiteren Auftritt im Oktober spielen werden: Am 02.10.09 spielen wir auf dem Oktoberfest im Vogelsrather Hof in Schwalmtal. Genauere Infos hierzu folgen noch. Die Plakate sollen aber schon im Druck sein.

So, das war´s jetzt erstmal. Ein letztes Video von Waldniel gibt es auch noch und wird im Laufe der Woche hochgeladen. Nebenbei haben wir schon insgesamt über 1.000 Videoaufrufe verzeichnen können. Ich denke das kann sich sehen lassen.

Bleibt uns gewogen,

Der Peter

Continuando con la discografía de este magnífico trío del que ya he hablado suficiente. ¡Vayamos a los discos!

Last Chance to Dance (Perhaps) {click para descargar}

The Dropper (click para descargar)

Tonic (click para descargar)

Electric Tonic (click para descargar)

Uninvisible (click para descargar)

“]

End of the World Party (just in case) {click para descargar}

Los Tres Reyes Magos — Medeski, Martin & Wood (Discografía, Parte I)

Pronto subiré la Parte III (Final).

Good morning out there sports fans. I’ve got the day off, and I’m gearing up to go see my A’s stick it to those hated Angels tonight at the McAfee Coliseum. I’ve got a hot jam for you today. I just picked up these guys’ greatest hits album a couple of weeks ago and it’s finally getting some decent play-time in my car. I heard today’s jam the other day and it instantly took me back to the day I purchased the original album several years ago while working a summer debate camp at Stanford. This year will mark the first in several that I will not be working that camp. It’s a bit sad because I am great friends with several (damn, that’s, like, the third time I’ve used ’several” in the last few sentences) of the other instructors. Oh well, maybe next year. Back to this jam, I think this funky, jazzy instrumental is my favorite of their work. Today’s song: Medeski, Martin & Wood – I wanna ride you. Enjoy….

Bob Moses, baterista del señor Pat Metheny, decide presentar a su alumno, Billy Martin, a sus colegas jazzistas Chris Wood y John Medeski. De esa reunión nace una informal banda de improvisación que tocaba cada cierto tiempo, casi por hobby, en el famosísimo club Village Gate de New York, escenario frecuentado por músicos de la talla de John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie y Bill Evans. Así, apadrinado por tantos nombres y adjetivos, nace el fantástico trío Medeski, Martin & Wood (MMW).

Bob Moses, baterista del señor Pat Metheny, decide presentar a su alumno, Billy Martin, a sus colegas jazzistas Chris Wood y John Medeski. De esa reunión nace una informal banda de improvisación que tocaba cada cierto tiempo, casi por hobby, en el famosísimo club Village Gate de New York, escenario frecuentado por músicos de la talla de John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie y Bill Evans. Así, apadrinado por tantos nombres y adjetivos, nace el fantástico trío Medeski, Martin & Wood (MMW).

Originalmente eran un trío acústico; pero el pianista John Medeski, artista exclusivo de Steinway, famosa marca de pianos, se cansó de transportar el pesado instrumento de concierto a concierto y decidió sustituirlo por un sintetizador, dándole al grupo un sonido completamente nuevo y mucho más original. Actualmente Medeski utiliza al rededor de 11 sintetizadores por concierto y sería mucho más fácil transportar un solo piano; afortunadamente eso parece ya no importarle. Aún habiendo comenzado la banda sin grandes pretensiones, el trío rápidamente adquirió una excelente reputación e incluso llegó a firmar con la casa Blue Note Records; finalmente en 2006 graban Out Louder, con el guitarista John Scofield, bajo su propio sello, Indirecto Records.

Nunca he tenido el privilegio de ver MMW en vivo. A pesar de que estuvieron de gira en Buenos Aires  el año pasado, me enteré de ese recital hace una semana (una vez más, ¿por qué no me informaron?); pero sólo con sus grabaciones de estudio puedo decir que es una de las mejores bandas de improvisación que he escuchado en un buen tiempo.

Sin más preámbulos,

Medeski, Martin & Wood
(Discografía Parte I)

It's a Jungle in Here (click para descargar)

Friday Afternoon in the Universe (click para descargar)

Shack Man (click para descargar)

Combustication

La continuación:

Los Tres Reyes Magos — Medeski, Martin & Wood (Discografía, Parte II)

Writing about the light sticks at the Phish show reminded me of another concert experiance when I saw Medeski Martin and Wood at one of their Holloween shows at the Beacon Theater back in 2000 or 2001. It was pretty much the same idea but no glow sticks just glow rings. The glow rings would fly through the air and one by one they were taken apart and attached to eachother until there was one long glow in the dark snake being passed through the audiance.

MMW, initiales des trois membres du group de jazz fusion, enfin de jazz avant garde, ou peut-être de free jazz, à moins que ça ne soit du jazz expérimental?

Je me demande, en fait, si Medeski, Martin and Wood sont classables?

Bref, les catégories ne servent à rien (à pas grand chose dirons-nous).

MMW donc, nous sortent une trilogie, the Radiolarians (une petit cours sur ces protozoaires, Eliness Anne?) qui adopte la démarche inverse de la production classique d’un album, à savoir: Ecrire le squelette d’un nouveau morceau (d’ou le nom de l’album: si Eliness Anne fait bien son boulot, vous comprendrez bien l’analogie, sinon, Wikipedia peut aussi vous aider…), le jouer pour la première fois sur scène, le travailler uniquement sur scène au fil des concerts, avec une grande place laissée à l’improvisation et une fois que le morceau a atteint un certain niveau d’exigences, l’enregistrer.

Ayant vu ces trois lascars sur scène, je pensais vraiment que cette trilogie (en fait, pour l’instant ne sont en vente que les volumes I et II, et pour ma part, je ne possède que le II, mais vais m’empresser d’acheter le I) allait déboucher sur de la pure expérimentation souvent à la limite de l’audible. Et bien, pas du tout. Radiolarians II est plus que plaisant. C’est un album magnifique, riche de rock, de jazz, de be-bop, de free jazz, d’ethno, d’expérimental, de funk, et j’en passe. Sur un grand nombre de morceaux, Medeski abandonne ses Hammond B-3, Würlitzer, Mellowtron ou Korg pour se mettre au piano “classique” avec beaucoup d’élégance, de brio et de swing (sachant que c’est justement le son des ses Hammond et autres qui m’a fait venir à MMW!).

Je ne suis pas loin de dire que cet album est mon préféré!

Uninvisible de l’album du même nom.

Think qui n’a rien à voir avec Aretha…

Chubb Subb de l’album Friday Afternoon In The Universe.

(As published in The Racquette Newspaper)

Radiolarians II is Medeski, Martin & Wood’s second album in the trilogy released on their own label, Indirecto Records. This is also their second studio album in seven months. The organ trio decided they wanted to set an example for how they think albums should be released by touring with the music before taking it into a recording studio. The result is a carefully molded album of tried and tested music that has been heard by the outside world in a live context.

The trio doesn’t disappoint with Radiolarians II. The album, like the first in the trilogy, has ten tracks. The first track, “Flat Tires,” hits you in the face with a rocking, overdriven electric bass line. Bassist Chris Wood is soon joined by his partners in crime, Billy Martin and John Medeski. Medeski lays down a frightening chordal progression on the organ while Martin explores every sound capable of being produced on his drum set. 

“Junkyard” begins with a slow, eerie organ intro. A groove is established and bass and drums join in with an abrasive texture. “Junkyard” and “Padirecto” are prime examples of the textured grooves often found in the music of Medeski, Martin & Wood. Both are full of space without feeling empty. The trio uses a variety of techniques to build upon the original ostinato and transition throughout the song. 

“Ijiji” is certainly not a song for the musical faint-of-heart. What starts as a free form groove becomes a complicated jumble of free-jazz. The roomy wash of reverberated sound is reminiscent of tracks off of the Miles Davis album Bitches Brew.

“Riffin’ Ed” is a bluesy piano tune with obvious New Orleans jazz influences. “Amber Gris” is based around a piano motif in six. Drummer Billy Martin plays with the meter by phrasing the bar of six in different ways and almost ignoring barlines altogether at some points. 

As credited on the inside of the CD jacket, Billy Martin makes use of a transistor radio during “Chasen vs Suribachi.” The track is similar to a 1950’s TV dinner gone wrong. It’s an overall assault on the senses as you try to understand what’s actually happening. This isn’t anything too new for Medeski, Martin & Wood, who often go off on complex, tangential musical journeys. 

“Dollar Pants” is an upbeat, incidental song. It could easily be found in soundtrack for a city scene whereas “Amish Pinxtos,” reverts to the driving grooves found earlier in the album. The album ends with the blues ballad, “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down.” 

Overall, the album is by no means a step in a new direction for the group but most listeners would agree that that’s a good thing. MMW consistently creates music with their recognizable voice without recycling the same ideas.

Uno de sus últimos trabajos está dedicado al público infantil. ¡Hay que ver cómo disfrutan “La canción del tren”…!

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Para saber más

Bar Kokhba toca la música de John Zorn.

Para saber más

KZSU playlist for Friday, March 27, 2009, 3:00 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.

Items of note:

….. Saxophonist Frank Gratkowski will be in town next week for, among other things, a CD release concert for Mimetic Holds, a quartet acoustic improv offering on Balance Point Acoustics, Damon Smith’s record label. Quick review of Mimetic Holds here.

….. Two items from the San Diego haul made the playlist: MMW’s Book of Angels entry, and Asobi Seksu, which turns out to be in rotation here at KZSU (meaning it’s on the list of stuff we’re encouraged to play repeatedly).

….. Interesting start to the show. MMW was going to be my opener, but Ben, who did the show before mine today, closed things out with “Rod Poole’s Gradual Ascent to Heaven,” a long, heartfelt piece from Nels Cline’s latest album, Coward. The mood (dark but not too heavy) and the elements of creeping dissonance, made the Robert Moran all-percussion piece a more ideal starting point.

Most album titles link into KZSU’s Zookeeper database; the icon means there’s a review or description there as well.

Artist	Track		Album/Label
Moran, Robert	Kboco		Mantra Innova Recordings
Medeski Martin & Wood	Agmatia		Zaebos: Book of Angels Vol. 11 Tzadik
Mosher, Rob / Storytime	The Sands Of Maundune		Tortoise, The Old Mill
Downs, Lila	Naela		Casa De Los Babys Hybrid Recordings
Axis Trio	Peacekeeper (For Darfur)		Hand, The Snp Records
Ware, David S.	Reflection		Shakti Aum Fidelity
Burgener, Teitlebaum, Muller	Interiorities		Shift For 4 Ears Records
	– (4:00 p.m.) –
Fennesz	Perfume For Winter		Black Sea Touch
Stein, Norbert / Pata Generators	Chameleon Nature		Direct Speech Pata Music
Seksu, Asobi	Transparence		Hush Polyvinyl Record Co.
Gratkowski, Frank and Graewe, Georg	Ve 4		Vicess Etudes Random Acoustics
Malaby, Tony / Cello Trio	Chicotaso		Warblepeck Songlines Recordings
Helias, Mark/Open Loose	Momentum Interrupted		Atomic Clock Radio Legs
Ornstein, Leo	Three Tales: Midnight Waltz		Fantasy And Metaphor New Albion Records
Frank Gratkowski, Scott Looney, Damon Smith, Kjell Nordeson	Diverse Xenon Loops		Mimetic Holds Balance Point Acoustics
Haden, Charlie	For Turiya [With Alice Coltrane]		Closeness A&M Records
	– (5:00 p.m.) –
Cleaver/Parker/Taborn	Not Unlike Number 10		Farmers By Nature Aum Fidelity

Check out Dracula (remix) from Medeski, Martin & Wood’s 1997 Bubblehouse EP. It’s a pretty sweet remix, so hopefully you’ll like it, or at least find it interesting. I also hope you’ve heard the original! If not, check that out first.