When John Medeski, Chris Wood and Billy Martin go into the studio to record any new album, they re never sure what will emerge. It was no different when the trio gathered in an upstate New York studio last year with a few concepts, a few musical ideas and a few friends, to create Let s Go Everywhere, the first recording designed to please their youngest fans.
The group settled on the idea of a journey, of travel both literal and figurative. It proved to be a motivating concept. But we didn t have much going in, says Wood. It was a thread we followed as we improvised, composed and working through each piece on the spot. We call it spontaneous composition. Martin agrees that we really had very little figured out. Maybe a few ideas about a beat or a nursery rhyme we liked, but we went into the studio not knowing what would happen.
Then the fun part began. Wood and Martin enlisted vocals from their children Nissa and Dakota. In the perfect party song, the band gets into a funky groove that stops suddenly, prompting enthusiastic young voices to shout, Where s the Music? and the music to start up again. We got that idea from our kids love of musical chairs, explains Wood. As the party continued, the trio brought in other friends to add to the musical journey.
All three band members see Let s Go Everywhere as an opportunity to play music they like without talking down to kids. Kids are really quick, Medeski says. We don t need to treat them like idiots. Wood agrees that kids are like sponges. We like to introduce our own kids to a huge range of music, and they love all kinds of sounds. Martin calls this album one of my favorite records, one of the best we ve ever done and says it brought the band members closer together then ever. It really sparked a new direction for us in many ways.Let's Go Everywhere is the kind of record that kids-music insiders get all wound up about, and for a reason that can be summed up in two tidy little words: it's awesome. Yes, when classifications must be made, Medeski Martin & Wood are sometimes thrown into the jazz genre. And yes, as musicians go, they're a pretty sophisticated outfit. But that hasn't prevented them from maintaining a direct line with their pirate- and pat-a-cake-loving sides. Everywhere rules because it's un-self-consciously funky ("Cat Creep"), uncondescendingly cool ("Where's The Music"), and unspookily moody ("Far East Sweets"). It's so obviously the product of three guys who know how to grow grooves, but also know how to grow bonds with 4-year-olds, that it makes other kids albums seem audaciously contrived, not to mention intolerably boring. Retentive types won't flinch from filing it alongside classics such as Schoolhouse Rock, Really Rosie, and the Sesame Street compilations. And four out of five preschoolers--maybe more like 499 out of 500--won't disagree: Medeski Martin & Wood merit the inclusion. --Tammy La Gorce
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