With album, MMW provides cure-all ‘Tonic’

Spencer Patterson

Friday, July 25, 2003 | 8:15 a.m.

You don't have to be plugged into New York City's downtown jazz scene to know that Medeski, Martin & Wood likes to plug in.

For more than a decade, the popular groove-jazz trio has wowed audiences with its electric-oriented music, creating improvisational pieces that range from dissonant noise trips to pure funk workouts.

So it was a bit of a surprise when the group -- known to its ever-growing legion of admirers as MMW -- opted to go acoustic for its first live album in early 2000.

Take a spin through "Tonic," however, and it's plain why the three New Yorkers chose to present their stripped-down side.

Culled from four shows at tiny Manhattan club Tonic in March 1999, the eight-track disc showcases three musicians whose pure jazz roots are often overshadowed by their association with the rock world's popular jam-band scene.

Having been to Tonic once myself, I can almost imagine the scene: John Medeski on a Steinway piano, Chris Wood on a stand-up bass and Billy Martin on a downsized drumkit, tucked in among the 150-person audience in the hip venue on the lower east side.

For Medeski in particular, the setting produced some remarkable results. Out from behind his electric organ, the trio's de facto leader remains a primal force, fingers flying over his keys in staccato style one moment and settling back the next to create a relaxed, mellow groove.

As has been the case throughout the group's 11-year history, Wood and Martin are far more than a typical jazz rhythm section on "Tonic." The duo aggressively steer MMW's music, locking onto a tight beat on "Rise Up" and then heading into the jazz genre's outer realms on the decidedly undanceable "Thaw."

The material, split evenly between originals and covers, is well-chosen. The trio aims high, tackling John Coltrane's "Your Lady," Bud Powell's "Buster Rides Again" and Lee Morgan's "Afrique," and does all three the justice they deserve.

Their warm rendition of the Coltrane track is among the album's overall highlights, as is the quiet finale, "Hey Joe," a song made famous by Jimi Hendrix.

Those interested in Medeski, Martin & Wood's more typical electric side should explore the band's mid-to-late-'90s output, namely "Friday Afternoon in the Universe," "Shack Man" and "Combustication."

The trio also released a companion piece to "Tonic" called "Electric Tonic." That disc, recorded during another Tonic engagement in 1998, is available only from the band's website, mmw.net.

Artist: Medeski, Martin & Wood.

Title: "Tonic."

Year of release: 2000 (Blue Note).

Track listing: "Invocation," "Afrique," "Seven Deadlies," "Your Lady," "Rise Up," "Buster Rides Again," "Thaw," "Hey Joe."