Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood - Out Louder

A little pre-release goodness for you today; M(S)MW's new album, due out at the end of this month, don't sleep on it, there's some serious groove happening here.

It's a match made not above nor below, but rather in some altogether hipper place: John Medeski + Billy Martin + Chris Wood + guitar guru John Scofield. On their new release OUT LOUDER, they make music not of this world, yet rooted in the earth tones of jazz, funk, and blues. Music from the heart, for the mind, and made to shake the earth, not to mention the body.

Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood first recorded together on Scofield's A Go Go (Verve 1998), a disc that has become a must-have classic. That project united jazz guitarist Scofield with the improvisational jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood on material composed by Scofield and interpreted by all four musicians. OUT LOUDER the inaugural release for MMW's own Indirecto Records label is Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood's first four-way collaborative recording. "A Go Go was John's record and we were essentially sidemen, where OUT LOUDER musically comes from all of us" explains Wood. Scofield adds: "We've always hit it off as a foursome, and I wanted to see what would happen if we did something that was a true collaboration, where everyone could play completely free."

Recorded in under a week at Shacklyn, MMW's fabled downtown Brooklyn studio, OUT LOUDER reeks of the scruffy, spirited basement in which it was created. "Something about being down there made the music that much grungier," says Wood. "It gave us that feeling of being a hungry garage band searching for the coolest licks and grooves without worrying about making everything perfect. We could just let it all hang out. Everyone was set up in the same room with all our amps and equipment, and you could feel what everyone else was playing that much better and really react to everything around you."

That, and the four musician's yen for jazz, funk, rock, soul and reggae, go a long way towards explaining why OUT LOUDER's deep grooves and sophisticated harmonies beg for closer inspection while simultaneously making you want to get up and dance. "People connect with grooves and funk, they feel it in their gut," says Medeski. "We understand complex harmonies, but in the end we know that you don't have to play all those notes to connect with people. The groove and spirit is what connects with people."

01. Little Walter Rides Again
02. Miles Behind
03. In Case The World Changes Its Mind
04. Tequila And Chocolate
05. Tootie Ma Is A Big Fine Thing
06. Cachaca
07. Hanuman
08. Telegraph
09. What Now
10. Julia
11. Down The Tube
12. Legalize It

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