C[omp]ute

From: "andrew cooke" <andrew@...>

Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:20:46 -0400 (CLT)

Tuesday night we went to see Medeski, Martin and Wood play at the Teatro
Oriente here in Providencia.

I'm not sure I know enough about Jazz to say anything useful, but it was
certainly enjoyable - I wish I could have seen it again as by the end (of
a longish 2+ hour set) I felt I might have learnt enough to not be so
confused by the experimental number they started with.

It's difficult to factor out my decreasing levels of cluelessness as the
night progressed (see above), but my impression was that for the first few
pieces the drummer (Martin) was a bit lost.  Wood (bass) was providing the
rhythmic core, Medeski (keyboards) was noodling around (as I said, they
opened with something experimental), and Martin was left shaking random
odds and sods that made tinkly noises (and not very well - I don't know if
there was a problem with his monitor, but when he tried to change volume
by varying the distance to the mic, he didn't move away far enough, so
instead of a gradual fade out there was only a slight drop in volume
before he stopped).

Anyway, things became much tighter later (the drums were often more
central; even when not - for example when Medeski was vamping(?) -
Martin's contributions made more sense (cool cow-bells!)).

If the who/when/how of rhythm was one variable they played with, another
was melody (or the lack of it).  I admit to being an uneducated
conservative and so preferred the more lyrical parts, but must concede
that even the "no melody but lots of rhythm" bits had moments that really
rocked.  The range of material was impressively wide (including some nice
Rock and Blues sounds).

Spanish review -
http://www.lamusica.emol.com/detalle/index.asp?idnoticia=322312 (no idea
why it talks about 90mins - it was definitively over 2 hours!)

Andrew