Medeski Martin & Wood’s End of the World Party (Just in Case) is heady stuff, perhaps all the more so two decades after its original release. The album (released 9/7/04) is undoubtedly on par with the recordings that made the group something of an underground jazz legend in the early-to mid-nineties— Shack-man and Friday Afternoon in the Universe–if only because it balances the groove orientation of those albums with the more ambient leaning(s) of its studio predecessors The Dropper and Uninvisible.
But while this last effort for Blue Note Records also recalls the beat-heavy Combustication, the trio’s 1998 debut for the vaunted jazz label, the compositions, performances, and recordings on Party are more pointed and purposeful. As a result, there is an (almost) indiscernible waxing and waning of intensity within this slightly more than fifty minutes of music.
In keeping with that attribute, this co-production by MMW and Dust Brother John King provides the most clarity and depth of any project the group has done. Billy Martin’s kick drum echoes deeply from the start of “Anonymous Skulls,” and the mobile throb of Chris Wood’s bass(es) on “Curtis” underscores how Oliver’s younger sibling is the backbone of this band’s sound.
If some of these tunes, such as “Shine It,” sounded familiar upon release twenty years ago, it’s because Party is the end result of group improvisations on stage and in the group’s Brooklyn studios. Melodic motifs and polyrhythmic beats were sculpted into a dozen compositions, from which came comparatively short, four-to-five-minute tracks.
Consequently, the cumulative effect of listening to this album is much the same as seeing the band live. The momentum development is (almost) imperceptible until the sharp funk of “Ice” reveals how much ground the threesome has covered in textures and beats.
It’s hard to say precisely how much King contributed to the construction of the album as a whole—he’s credited with “a little of this, a little of that”—but it’s safe to say he nurtured the integration of Marc Ribot’s guitar on four tracks including “New Planet,” not to mention the horns of slide trumpeter Steve Bernstein and saxophonist Briggan Krauss during “Sasa.” Such instrumental additions are as seamless as they are unobtrusive.
In contrast, some of the production touches, such as the multi-layered ornamentation on the title song, border on cute. In the end, however, those sonic fillips are ephemeral blemishes in the context of John Medeski’s overall use of electronic keyboards as on “Reflector.” As the fluttering electric piano and the prod of acoustic bass wend their way through lightly exotic percussion on “Midnight Poppies/Exotic Birds,” it also becomes clear how effectively MMW utilizes space in music that is otherwise so intensely dense.
Music lovers who find some of the threesome’s period recordings too esoteric (Tonic and Electric Tonic) will rejoice in the syncopation that permeates End of the World Party (Just in Case). Anyone who’s seen Medeski, Martin & Wood will marvel at how this studio creation’s mood(s) and flow mirror all the best qualities of this trio on stage.
In the wake of MMW’s departure from Blue Note, the group established its imprimatur, Indirecto Records, and in 2006 released Out Louder, their second studio collaboration with veteran guitarist John Scofield (followed five years later with In Case The World Changes Its Mind an album taken from subsequent roadwork together).
In the meantime, a variety of Medeski Martin & Wood projects ensued, including a children’s album (Let’s Go Everywhere), avant-garde collaborations with John Zorn, and The Radiolarians Series, a three-part adventure in writing, recording, and touring that is arguably the most ambitious and innovative effort the trio ever embarked upon: MMW composed new music, then played it in concert, only after which they took it into the recording studio.
Public performances by the threesome, however, became few and far between around the time of their twentieth anniversary—duly recognized with the multi-part 20 releases—but each of the three stayed prolific with their individual endeavors. Chris consolidated his membership in The Wood Brothers, Medeski led his own bands (like Mad Skillet) besides guesting with many other artists, and Illy B pursued his interests in art as well as music.
In the wake of the documentary film Not Not Jazz, Medeski Martin & Wood are set to play at the Brooklyn Comes Alive event in September 2024. It’s yet another surprise twist in an ever-so-unpredictable career path by this group of idiosyncratic musicians.
