John
Medeski at the ICA
I first encountered
John Medeski in the late 80's when he was the piano player for
Either/Orchestra. Through his playing I came to appreciate and come
to an initial understanding of (for lack of a better term) free-jazz
piano playing. I had heard some people like Cecil Taylor and Muhal
Richard Abrams (not that JM necessarily sounds like either of those
guys, but, you know), but had never really been won over until
hearing Medeski wail on the Clavinova (which, as band leader Russ
Gershon once explained, is “an electric piano, not a mollusk.”) at the
Middle East. The live version of Born in a Suitcase from the Across
the Omniverse album is a good example of what I'm talking about.
After leaving the Orchestra, he began to focus on playing organ,
leaving the piano aside. Although I loved their first album, It's
a Jungle in Here [oops, it's their second, but it's the first one I
knew], I
really came to dislike Medeski, Martin and Wood and they seemed to
just be grooving out for the jam-band audience.
So the announcement of a
Medeski solo piano concert had me hoping to reconnect with a
long-lost favorite.
