Medeski, Martin & Wood are a three-piece jazz band with definite funk and avant-garde tendencies. Signed to Blue Note, they are by far the most popular of the downtown jazzers, regularly pulling in huge audiences, both to small clubs and larger venues with capacities of a couple of thousand. It's a remarkable following for a young jazz act, and it makes MMW something of a New York phenomenon.
With John Medeski on keyboards, Billy Martin on drums and Chris Wood on bass, MMW are inevitably the subject of much argument. For some, their funky chaos is no more than quasi-jazz, but for their devotees, theirs is true improvisational music at its most dynamic. In fact, for the cool downtown head, Medeski, Martin & Wood are jazz past, present and future. They are the link between hard bop and hip-hop, and it could only have happened in New York.
"Myself and John got an apartment together in Manhattan," says Chris Wood, "and we began playing gigs at the Village Gate. We used various jazz drummers, but then we hooked up with Billy Martin, who really didn't come from a traditional jazz background at all. His influences were more dance music and Brazilian music, but he was willing to experiment in all sorts of ways. So it made for an interesting new sound."
They threw themselves into what is known as the Downtown Scene, and before long, they were in musical contact with such leading lights as John Zorn, The Lounge Lizards and Marc Ribot. It had a major impact on all three of them, and immediately they began to think about something different and new. Exploring new sounds and new ways of playing their instruments, they struck out in the far-out, but without ever forgetting the various music they loved. "There's so much variety in New York. There's a very traditional and conservative scene, but you also have people who are always pushing the envelope, and that's where we were. We were living in the East Village - 10 years ago, when the East Village was a place where a lot of musicians and artists could afford to live - and it really did make for a nice little scene. There were a lot of clubs, and you were just running into people and meeting people all the time. "It felt vibrant and I liked it because everyone was at everyone else's gigs. There were always musicians watching other musicians and being influenced by one another. Everybody was trying to do something different, and they were paying attention to each other."
Wood stresses that each member of the trio comes from a different musical background, and that they were, from the off, a strange mix of personalities and influences. But by touring together, and sharing each other's record collections, they gradually began to create something uniquely their own.
For bassist Woods, those influences were many and varied - Mingus, Bootsy Collins, Cachao, Jaco Pastorious and Dave Holland - and it is precisely that kind of eclecticism which now draws the crowds. A Hendrix cover might, for example, follow a completely free-form workout with funk beats taken straight from The Meters. It's a bit Ornette Coleman, a bit James Brown and a bit Beasties, and nobody ever seems to know which way it will go next - including the band.
"It's exciting and it's terrifying, but it's like a democracy. We don't have a leader, so we're always riding a fine line. When should one of us take control? When should one of us lay back and let things happen? There's no formula for that, so we all have to really be paying attention at all times. It's more responsibility than just being in a band with a leader - we each have to have that `leader awareness' without being a dictator. We really don't know what we're doing, and we count on that."
But for all the funky grooves, there is an unquestionably chaotic element which perhaps makes their popularity all the more surprising. Typically, their critics will mutter about that huge following, putting it down to their association with Phish and in particular their guitarist, Trey Anastasio, who likes to show up and jam. It's certainly a factor, because Phish fans are largely the same people as the Deadheads - those numerous loyal devotees of The Grateful Dead who still need a band to follow. And if you're on a percentage of the door, they are undoubtedly a lucrative grouping to have on your tail.
But that said, it remains a remarkable achievement for any three-piece of piano, bass and drums to pull in punters at all and to sell their rather uncompromising records - the most recent being The Dropper, produced by Scotty Hard, who normally deals with The Wu-Tang Clan.
"He has a great attitude. He has worked on music which, although it is considered commercial, is also about taking risks and trying radical things - making radical sounds and mixing them in new ways. "We're really happy with this record because it's the first we made completely the way we wanted it."
Medeski, Martin & Wood have been around for 10 years. They have never made it easy for themselves - or for their audience - and yet they continue to grow in popularity. The facts speak for themselves - as fans turn up, in large numbers, to listen and to dance. It's also a real reason to celebrate - and all the Phishheads, Deadheads, jazzers, funksters, hip-hoppers and disciples of John Coltrane are all welcome to come along.
"I think it's just because we went out and toured a lot. A lot of music that people might not get on record is much more accessible live. There's that excitement of seeing the musicians doing it. Live music is an amazing thing. And as soon as we get too comfortable we have a sense that we have to make ourselves uncomfortable again - to make sure that we really are improvising and exploring new territory.
"Sometimes you really don't know where you stand, or if what you're doing is any good or not, but there's something about that feeling of uncertainty that is crucial. A lot of great band leaders in the past - like Miles Davis - have made sure that their band felt like that at all times. Maybe it wasn't the most pleasant feeling, but it makes for an open and searching attitude, and that's important for music to grow."
The Dropper, by Medeski, Martin & Wood, is on Blue Note.