Medeski, Martin & Wood / Uninvisible

AllMusic Review by Robert L. Doerschuk  [-]

Uninvisible is further than ever from conventional jazz organ. While blues and funk influences are evident throughout the album, they float on a sea of shadows. Sound sources are obscure or exotic; on "Pappy Check" innovative scratching by turntablist DJ Olive creates an impression of African percussion more than club atmospherics. Even where the instrumentation is less ambiguous, the trio steers toward a filmic noir sensibility, with Medeski leading the way in unorthodox techniques. His pitch-bend solo on "Take Me Nowhere" suggests the creak of a rusty hinge, with Wood's acoustic bass providing the anchor for his abstractions. Wood is in fact often mixed higher than Medeski, to the effect of reducing the keyboard parts to a sideline role and the album in turn to an exercise in mood more than virtuosity -- an impression enhanced by a similarly eccentric shrinkage of the power guitar part on "The Edge of Night" to a barely audible background element. The rhythm is steady and stealthy, a slow-motion oscillation between live and looped tracks, most often with a hip-hop sensibility. More important, every musician on each cut plays with a belief that overplaying only subverts the goals of collective improvisation. If any one album can be said to pick up on the surreal funk explorations of latter-day Miles Davis, Uninvisible is it.

Medeski, Martin & Wood
Uninvisible
2002

Uninvisible 0:00 I Wanna Ride You 3:36 Your Name Is Snake Anthony 7:06 Pappy Check 10:18 Take Me Nowhere 13:04 Retirement Song 17:12 Ten Dollar High 22:00 Where Have You Been? 25:42 Reprise 29:20 Nocturnal Transmission 29:56 Smoke 36:33 First Time Long Time 39:21 The Edge Of Night 42:15 Off The Table 46:08

Performers

• John Medeski – keyboards
• Billy Martin aka illy B – drums, percussion
• Chris Wood – basses
• Eddie Bobé – congas, bata, shekere, bottle and bell (tracks 5 and 6)
• DJ Olive – turntables (tracks 3 and 14)
• Aaron Johnson – trombone (tracks 1 and 10)
• Jordan McLean – trumpet, flugelhorn (tracks 1 and 10)
• Michael Herbst – baritone saxophone, bass clarinet (tracks 1 and 10)
• Stuart D. Bogie – tenor saxophone, contra-alto clarinet (tracks 1 and 10)
• Todd Simon – trumpet, flugelhorn (tracks 1 and 10)
• Col. Bruce Hampton – vocals (track 3)
• DJ P Love - turntables (tracks 4, 6, 7, and 13)
• Danny Blume – guitar (tracks 4 and 14), baritone guitar (track 4), ambient guitar (tracks 6 and 10)
• Brad Roberts – vocals (track 8)
• Scotty Hard – Nomad Rhythm Maker (tracks 5 and 13), rhythm guitar (track 6), turntables (track 12), feedback (track 3)

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