Child's Play

Madeski, Martin and Wood

by Peter Aaron, February 25, 2008

It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon and the members of jam-band festival favorites Medeski Martin & Wood are wholly consumed, blissfully experimenting in the musical laboratory that is the stage. In fact, by the way he’s darting between the Hammond organ and the full- and toy-size pianos taking up his corner, egg-headed John Medeski looks more like a technician you’d see posed next to the UNIVAC than the keyboardist in a jazz-funk trio. At the opposite end of the bandstand, drummer Billy Martin lays down the heavy fatback, stirring up a thick broth of second-line shuffle beats—spiced with extra cowbell—as he bounces madly on his stool. In the middle, gangly bassist Chris Wood nods his head in time as he tickles and saws at his tall instrument, holding the whole mess together with benign solemnity. The music is full of constant sonic surprises and rump-rolling, irresistibly addictive grooves, and the listeners are clearly getting off on it, stomping, spinning, running around, and throwing their hands in the air like, yep, they just don’t care.

Typically great MMW show, right? In many ways, yes. But while the band and its members formidable chops are the same, the audience is something altogether new for these well-seasoned players. This crowd is made up largely of children—mainly toddlers, actually. They’re here for one of the occasional Kids Rambles held at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, where, of course, parents are allowed, too. And the elders are definitely digging the music as well, dancing while holding their kids, sitting Indian-style on the floor in front of the band, or chatting with other moms and dads as their offspring run wild. Family fun, and with a totally unbeatable soundtrack.

“[The Kids Ramble] did end up being a lot of fun, but we were pretty nervous beforehand,” says Wood a few weeks later. Wait—nervous? A band that has been touring the globe for almost 20 years, collaborated with everyone from Phish to Living Color’s Vernon Reid to jazz great John Scofield, one that regularly headlines massive outdoor festivals and prestigious venues like Manhattan’s Beacon Theater? Nervous, in front of a roomful of tots and their sippy-cup-bearing, diaper bag-toting parents? If such a thing is possible, the trio sure didn’t look uneasy at the time.

“I guess we fooled ya,” says Wood with a laugh. “That was the first time we’d done anything like that, being put in front of a bunch of kids and being expected to entertain them. We weren’t sure if we’d have enough material to hold their attention, since kids have much shorter attention spans than adults. It went pretty well, but we still have a lot to learn.”