MMW – easy going solid music

The currently approaching autumn is flooding us with new projects by our favourite pianists. The day becomes shorter, so we have more time for listening and concentration. And to our great joy, this season we are introduced to new recordings – Medeski, Martin and Wood, Jamie Saft quartet and Jason Lindner with a new album by his band Now vs Now. They will all be introduced here in the weeks to come. We begin with Medeski, Martin and Wood’s new project Omnisphere, produced and issued by their Indirecto Records label in September 2018. The album is a recording of two concerts by the trio, this time with the Alarm will sound chamber orchestra. Described by critics as completely open to the world, the trio once again continues mixing styles and experimenting. Here, in collaboration with one of the most progressive orchestras for contemporary classical music, they go a step further. The first album (after the incredible Juice) with an appearance by John Scofield, issued in 2014. John Medeski is a long-time member of a group of musicians playing John Zorn’s music. He is also a participant in Hudson (and Auktyon). I was waiting for the right moment to introduce Medeski, Martin and Wood. Because the funky avant-garde project is one of our favourite bands since many years. And we waited and wondered - when would they record again… But like true lovers of new ideas, they once again surprise us with Omnisphere. Without straying from their sound, here they play new things and new versions of old things, played in a perfectly different way, but just as artistically. Here, with reverence to Stravinsky and Shostakovich, by the words of John Medeski himself. 
Innovation has always been the best approach to music. To dare, to do something, without worrying about how it will be perceived. 
With “The Rite of Spring” Stravinsky tests how ready the audience is for new ideas. For blurring the lines and the creation of an entirely new kind of music. 
And just like that, on our way to Sarajevo we are listening to John Medeski, Billy Martin, Chris Wood аnd Alarm will sound with a new reading of the play Anonymous Skulls. 
November 2018 
© МА