John Medeski

John Medeski

MY FAVORITE THINGS
John Medeski
It's obvious from listening to the sonic gumbo of Medeski, Martin & Wood's The Dropper that John Medeski has done his share of open-eared listening. The rabidly eclectic keyboardist talked with Barnes & Noble.com's Ted Panken about recordings that continue to transform his life.

B&N.com: Let's start off with you as an acoustic player, a pianist, the way you began. So let's talk about the pianists who influenced your sense of jazz style.

LA: I'll tell you who. Bud Powell. Unquestionably. The Amazing Bud Powell Vol. 1 and 2. Pieces like "Un Poco Loco" or "Parisian Thoroughfare" are incredible examples of bebop linear playing. He has to me what any of the great horn players or any great linear improviser has, which is incredible phrasing, incredible lines, incredible note choice, and also at the same time a raw, passionate expression that is lost in people who play the same notes. There's a certain fire and energy to his playing that I always love.
Cecil Taylor. Air Above Mountains. That for me was transforming. I heard it as a kid. At the same time I was getting into Bud, that's when I was hearing Cecil. It's strange, but these were the people who appealed to me back then. This is when I was a teenager and first got into jazz. First it was Oscar Peterson, but then Bud Powell got me, and Cecil Taylor with that record as well as Unit Structures. With Cecil, it's endless.

B&N.com: Could you pinpoint one of Herbie Hancock's records?

LA: All the stuff on the Plugged Nickel box set. Anything Herbie did with Miles, and his own stuff...really anything he ever did. He never played a bad note! Coloristically and his touch on the piano. Also, seeing him live, I have to say, has a lot to do with it; having seen him make any piano sound beautiful.
Monk and Bill Evans are the next two it's hard to leave out. With Monk it's his rhythmic placement and note choice and originality. Any of his solo records. Let's say Thelonious Himself. Bill Evans's Alone is one of the great solo piano records of all time, in my opinion. Again, it's his touch, his harmonic sensibility, the movement of his inner voices. The stuff is amazing. Also, I think Keith Jarrett's recent solo record, The Melody at Night, with You is another one of the great standard solo piano records, up there with Alone. I've been listening to that a lot.

B&N.com: A lot of the sound people know you by in recent years has to do with your manipulation of electronic sound. Who influenced you in that regard?

LA: For me, there's a Bob Marley record Talking Blues the keyboard playing on that. I'm not exactly sure who the keyboard player is because it wasn't listed. I'm not sure who it was, if it was Bunny Wailer. Basically, it's Hammond B3, Clavinet and Wurlitzer, and just the interplay between the instruments' orchestration and the groove and sound are incredible. Actually, Talking Blues, is one of the records that influenced me to get a clavinet for myself, listening to that and hearing the way he used organ and clavinet together. It's live, maybe a BBC recording, with the tunes and him talking in between each tune. It's a great record. Sly and the Family Stone, There's a Riot Going On. The keyboard playing on that record. I think Sly was playing a lot of the keyboard stuff on that. A lot of great clavinet-organ stuff and the interplay between the guitars and keyboards is something that influenced me. I approach clavinet like a guitar a lot. I think of that as like our guitar player a lot of the time.

B&N.com: I know you're a devotee of Sun Ra.

LA: Sun Ra for sure. His incredible improvisational ability on any keyboard... the ability to make music on any instrument is a big influence on me, to take whatever you're playing and find a way to make music on it -- to me that's what Sun Ra is all about. My Brother the Wind has incredible solo keyboard stuff on it. And the video "Joyful Noise" has some incredible Sun Ra keyboard playing on it -- piano, synthesizer, weird organs, all that stuff. Those two should change any keyboard player's life.

B&N.com: In these various clips about you, people are always mentioning Larry Young.

LA: Oh, yeah. Well, let's get there. Larry Young influenced me as a keyboard player before I ever knew I was going to play organ. I loved that band, I loved that music, but it was when I was just playing piano. I would play Rhodes [electric piano] and stuff, and I would use all kinds of effects to get it as distorted as possible. Organ just kind of answers all that stuff because it's such a powerful voice. But yeah, I love Larry Young. Lawrence Of Arabia; and Something Else, and Unity for sure. I totally love those records. I would say Unity and Emergency by Tony Williams's Lifetime were huge influences.
Joe Zawinul is another one I can't leave out. I hate to say it. But I listened to Weather Report and loved it. The fact that he was never showy or obviously technical, but you could feel his total technical mastery. But he didn't show off. He just played pure music. Early Weather Report stuff, any of it, and his own records, Zawinul, where they do "In a Silent Way" with all his real changes. And his stuff with Miles. Wayne Shorter also. From the days with Blakey. Talk about linear lines. His bebop lines are so unique, so swinging. They're incredible. His solo on "Lester Left Town," the slower version on Africaine. Everything you need to know about bebop is in that solo. I love Eric Dolphy, too. Out There, his solo on that tune actually. JU-JU I love. And mainly, a lot of the stuff he did with Miles, and later with that VSOP band. Like, his ability to play in a way that opened up the rhythm section. It's his ability to almost not even finish a phrase, to let the air or the rhythm section finish it. He could almost play over anything and turn it into great music.

B&N.com: What are the CDs you're listening to right now.

LA: Bahamadia's new EP that just came out. It might be the first thing she's done on her own. She's a hip-hop rapper, and she's truly badass! A lot of it is lacking, and her stuff is so happening. Stevie Wonder's Talking Book is in there. Sacred Steel Live Pedal steel gospel music from the South that is still going on and is ridiculous. On the classical front, I've been listening to all this Ligeti stuff that's come out I think on Matrix. One of them is Gyorgy Ligeti Keyboard Works, which is for piano and organ and four hands. It is on Sony-Classical. There's all this stuff on Ace, Gumbo Stew, Still Spicy Gumbo Stew, More Gumbo Stew. All different stuff from New Orleans, stuff that was maybe a hit down there. A lot of it is early Dr. John, Lee Dorsey, Willie T., Eddie Bobo, all these bands. It's the original AFO New Orleans R&B stuff, and it's on Ace.