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The rather plainly named Medeski Martin & Wood have almost single-handedly returned the spotlight to the more out-there fusion between bop jazz and on-the-one funky rock music. Wheezing and huffing behind a bank of old-school keyboards, Medeski Martin & Wood plow into their songs with abandon. The d...

Funkify Your Life: The Meters Anthology...

The Very Best of the Meters...

On Super Heavy Organ, Robert Walter is in able company as he constructs what he calls "soul jazz". For one thing, there’s the rhythm section, culled from the finest of the New Orleans old and new guards: Johnny Vidacovich and Stanton Moore, respectively. Although they don’t join up on these trac...

Ruckus...

Reissue of the 1969 debut by this funky New Orleans-based r&b group led by Art Neville & produced by the mighty team of Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn. Contains all 12 cuts from when the Josie label originally issued the record, plus two previously unreleased bonus tracks, 'The Look Of Love' ...

Pouring their jazz out of a postmodern blender, Medeski Martin & Wood reference Sly Stone, King Sunny Ade and John Coltrane on the same album; Thelonious Monk and Bob Marley in the same song ("Bemsha Swing-Lively Up Yourself"). And it works: By turn funky ("Beeah,""Shuck It Up") and avant garde ("Wo...

The Anomaly...

Saxophonist Karl Denson may not have the name recognition enjoyed by new-jack jazzmen such as Charlie Hunter or Medeski, Martin & Wood, but that should change with Dance Lesson #2, his Blue Note debut. A versatile player, Denson played with Lenny Kravitz in the early '90s and helped found the acclai...

Released in 1996, Shack-man may be the quintessential MMW disc. From the opening cover of the traditional spiritual "Is There Anyone Here that Love My Jesus" to the mellow swirls of the closing "Kenny," the emphasis is on the almighty groove; though John Medeski (here pumping everything from Hammond...