Medeski, Martin & Wood: Partners Ready to Enter the Big Time

Critics and fans alike have spent a lot of time trying to figure out exactly how to label Medeski, Martin & Wood. As any number of fanzine and newspaper articles have pointed out, the trio’s name suggests some tony accounting firm or a partnership of high-powered attorneys, rather than the latest extension of the organ-trio musical tradition.

Keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood, who play tonight at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana, have complicated the label problem by refining their sound with each recording.

The group’s first album, “Notes From the Underground,” on the Accurate label, came in 1992 and was an angst-filled, existential statement of avant-garde music dominated by acoustic keyboard and percussion. The follow-up, “It’s a Jungle in Here,” included guitar and a horn section on certain tracks that created a cooler, contemporary sound.

Their current direction began with 1995’s “Friday Afternoon in the Universe,” with its emphasis on street beats and Medeski’s whining Hammond B-3 organ. And last year’s breakthrough “Shack-Man” firmly established the trio at the forefront of the grunge-jazz movement, with its low-tech keyboard sound and heavy beat.

By Medeski’s account, the trio is best described as an “improvisational groove band.”

“We’re doing what jazz was doing in the ‘40s and ‘50s,” he said, “improvising on tunes related to the pop music of the day. We take the grooves that we grew up with, the dance music that we heard, and from that create a music that has a little more depth in a way that jazz or other improvised music has.”

This formula has attracted an audience that draws from pop, alternative and jazz camps, though it’s a decidedly young bunch. Their performance last fall at Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre was crowded with the shaved-and-pierced set, retro-hippies and music nerds, almost all under 35. Deadheads, fans of beat-band Phish, mixed with those into alternative pop and acid jazz, all nodding as one to the music’s infectious rhythms.

“Our audience comes from the fringes of music styles,” Medeski said last week by phone from Tucson, where the band was opening its current tour. “We cross a lot of boundaries, so we get a diverse crowd. It’s a group who looks for bands that like to stretch out, who keep experimenting with the groove and improvisational aesthetic.”

Early on, the trio decided that it would need to take its music to the people. Foregoing jazz clubs, MM&W; booked itself into small rock and alternative clubs, traveling by van and playing as many as 200 dates a year since 1993.

“We’ll occasionally play a jazz festival,” Medeski said, “but for the most part we stay out of jazz spots. That’s not our audience.”

Medeski says the group’s sound was formed on the road, through a long string of performances where the grooves and the interplay developed over time. “Shack-Man” captures that live spirit, though it was recorded in an isolated setting in Hawaii, in a cabin that didn’t even have electricity.

The album was done with equipment using solar power and World War II-vintage generators, in a setting that their engineer, noted jazz producer David Baker, has described as “ ‘Lord of the Flies’ with batteries.”

“This is the place we go to get away from everything when we’re not on the road,” said Medeski, who keeps the location secret out of fear their devoted fans will follow. The trio spent some time there earlier this year before the current tour.

Fans expecting to hear tunes direct from “Shack-Man” might be disappointed this time around, according to Medeski. “We’re developing a lot of new grooves,” he said, “and playing in a little more abstract style.

“It’s too easy to just keep doing what the people want, playing the same song over and over night after night,” he said. “We want to fight that and give good music--electric church--every night.”

Things have also changed for the band members on this series of shows. They’ve hired their own tour bus and driver for the first time and have added a sound man to their troupe. Medeski has arranged to have an acoustic piano at most dates, adding to his Hammond, Wurlitzer electric piano and Clavinet.

There are other clues that the band is ready to enter the big time. A remix CD, “Bubblehouse,” featuring reconstructions of titles from “Shack-Man,” has just been released, featuring the work of Vernon Reid collaborator DJ Logic, among others. The group now has its own newsletter and World Wide Web site.

Now that its contract with Gramavision has expired, Medeski said the trio is getting offers from several major labels as well as considering recording independently. “We didn’t expect we’d have the success that we’ve had,” he said. “For a long time, we were just happy to survive.”

* Medeski, Martin & Wood, Critters Buggin’ and Afrodisiac play todayat the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $15-$17. (714) 957-0600.