Medeski, Martin & Wood

Medeski, Martin & Wood brought the organ-trio tradition into the 21st century with their hard-grooving take on soul jazz, funk, hip-hop and pure improvisation. MMW coalesced in 1991, when New England Conservatory of Music grads John Medeski (multiple keyboards) and Chris Wood (acoustic and electric basses) met drummer Billy Martin in New York. After woodshedding on the road, they released their acoustic Notes from the Underground in 1992. The trio went electric on 1995’s Friday Afternoon In the Universe and solidified their rock/jazz-crossover fanbase by performing with Phish and serving as integral collaborators on guitarist John Scofield’s impeccably grooving A Go Go in 1998. That same year, MMW dug deeper into their brand of futuristic funk on Combustication, their first album with turntablist DJ Logic, after signing to Blue Note. A fixture on both the jazz and jam-band festival circuits, the group adopted a much more sporadic performance schedule following 20, an anniversary collection of original material released over the course of 2011.