John Medeski's mother taught him to read before he even started school, and his father taught him to play blues and jazz standards on the piano before he learned to walk. So it is only fitting that today John is completely dedicated to the piano, cross-pollinating diverse musical disciplines, and immersed in inventive musical conversation.
John may be best known as one-third of Medeski Martin & Wood, but his full body of work goes far beyond that ground-breaking trio.
As of late, John can be found performing solo piano recitals, where he explores classical music, lounge songs, and jazz standards in intimate concert venues such as the Chicago Symphony Center and New York City's Merkin Hall, in addition to select dates in Mexico City and Guadalajara.
He has also begun scoring films, and it is his score that plays throughout the acclaimed film Day on Fire, which recently screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. Medeski also makes a cameo appearance in the film, playing a piano player and musical accompanist to one of the main characters.
John produced and played on the self-titled debut by The Word, a gospel-meets-rock collective with The North Mississippi All-Stars that introduced the secular world to pedal-steel guitar phenomenon Robert Randolph. He also lent his production skills to the New Orleans funk institution The Dirty Dozen Brass Band for their release 'Buck Jump', to gospel instrumentalists The Campbell Brothers' 'Can You Feel It,' and to folk/blues songwriter duo The Wood Brothers (featuring Medeski Martin & Wood bassist Chris Wood and his brother Oliver) on their debut album for the Blue Note label, 'Ways Not To Lose.'
A familiar face in New York's 'downtown' scene, John has performed alongside New York-based musicians such as saxophonist/composer John Zorn, guitarist Marc Ribot, Lounge Lizard John Lurie, and slide trombonist Steve Bernstein.
In addition, a diverse array of artists have sought out John to join them in the recording studio, amongst them songwriters T-Bone Burnett, Rufus Wainwright, Ray Lamontagne, and kd lang, guitarist John Scofield, punk godfather Iggy Pop, R&B innovator Chocolate Genius, D.J./producer Dan the Automator, jazz pianist Matthew Shipp, legendary funk/jazz saxophonist Maceo Parker, Peruvian singer Susanna Baca, gospel singers The Blind Boys of Alabama, and gospel/R&B vocalist Mavis Staples.
Over the past year John has delved deeply into the realm of improvised psychedelic funk with The Itch, a trio that he put together with Soulive guitarist Eric Krasno and hip-hop drummer Adam Deitch specifically to perform at the All Good Music Festival in Masontown, West Virginia. The group's two sets of sweaty, improvised workouts instantly became legend, so much so that The Itch plan to continue making music together.
There is also Medeski Scofield Martin and Wood, featuring guitarist John Scofield and Medeski's MMW mates Billy Martin and Chris Wood. The quartet's 'Out Louder' was the first release on Medeski Martin and Wood's own record label, Indirecto Records.
Hard to believe that at the age of nine, John nearly gave up the piano, thinking that the instrument was too 'girly' and looking to devote more time to other artistic mediums and a growing social life. Fortunately, John's parents convinced him to stick with the piano just a bit longer. By his early teen years, John enrolled in the prestigious Pinecrest School, a private institution where he began an intense study of classical music and theory while simultaneously studying jazz piano harmony. Of course, it is that very juxtaposition of classical discipline and jazz improvisation which informs Medeski's music to this very day.
In fact, John considers himself first and foremost a classical musician. "I was always into classical music," says Medeski. "What the great classical composers were doing at the time was a reflection of what was going on in their world, and I enjoy discovering my own relationships to what they were doing. At the same time, I try to do what the jazz greats always did they play music based on whatever sounds are popular at the time, and then they add something of their own to it." In 1991, while a student at the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music, John Medeski met his future, in the persona of bassist and fellow student Chris Wood. The two moved to New York City, jammed with a drummer named Billy Martin, and a band, not to mention a lasting three-way friendship, was formed.
As with most visionaries, artists, and creative-types, Medeski has a multitude of dreams and plans yet to be realized. There will be more solo piano gigs, more musicians to be brought together, and there are ideas for duo projects and band experiments that have yet to be brought to fruition. There are musicians from Morocco and Peru who Medeski has played with, and hopes to play music alongside again. And there is a dream of one day putting together and scoring music for a big band.
"There is just an endless stream of stuff that I do," says Medeski. "I like to make music that comes from the most basic need to create. Hopefully, that desire to make music will create something that vibrates and resonates with people, and makes them want to come along for the ride. The whole point of making music is to do something that you really feel from deep inside.
"And if you feel it," he says, "other people will feel it too."
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