Medeski Martin & Wood: Combustication (2LP) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This remastered 2LP set spreads the hour-long album over four sides. Combustication was the trio's first record for Blue Note and the first to bring a turntablist into their organ, bass and drums sound.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Remastered

About the album

Organ trios have been a Blue Note tradition since Jimmy Smith, but nobody had heard one quite like this. John Medeski, Billy Martin and Chris Wood had built their following on the jam band circuit, including a 1995 gig with Phish, and for their Blue Note debut they recorded at the Magic Shop in New York with co-producers David Baker and Scott Harding.

DJ Logic scratches through "Sugar Craft," "Start-Stop" and "Hypnotized," and even gets his own showcase in "Church of Logic." Poet Steve Cannon delivers the spoken word on "Whatever Happened to Gus," the trio turn Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People" into a loose instrumental, and "No Ke Ano Ahiahi" is a traditional Hawaiian tune played with surprising tenderness, while Billy Martin's drums and Chris Wood's upright bass keep everything earthy. "Latin Shuffle" stretches past nine minutes and "Hypnotized" past thirteen.

Greg Calbi mastered the original at Masterdisk, and the record became a bridge between acid jazz, hip hop and the jam scene. It is the rare jazz album that works equally well in a dark club or a muddy festival field, footwear permitting.

Also at Kops: more Medeski Martin & Wood on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note, a reissue of the 1998 album.