The Jazz Trio consisting of John Medeski on keyboards, Billy Martin on percussion, and Chris Wood on acoustic upright bass, originally started after a gig in New York’s infamous Village Gate. The once reputed “ most inventive jam bands of the ’90s, the rare act that could entertain Phishheads one night and a fringe-jazz crowd the next” would prefer to reintroduce themselves than live up to inaccurate genre-title they were given. MMW is not a jam band, but progressive, knotty jazz.

MMW has a tight, deep groove with an ambient background filtering in. In their more recent albums, a full horn section has spiced up the typically “jam” instrumentals. In heightened solos, a wah pedal is deployed; it starts closed and then goes full boar open. The keyboards are exploited in new and interesting ways, but often more so live than on disc. Amongst the keyboards they have been known to employ, are mellotron, melodica and clavinet. They have an exhausting live show in which they theatrically delve into improvisitions that are no where apparent on their records or in studio.

In recent years, they have continually pushed the jazz genre into new fields, manipulating and, God forbid, post production editing noise into the tunes for a more urban funk feel. Each record contains a healthy dose of hip hop and spoken word lyrics accompanied by ludicrous sounds of sassy peacocks and police sirens. The group often experiments with guest Djs who are welcome to add their own flavor into the mix, or tweak a song as they hear it.