Notes From the Underground

For folks who got turned onto Medeski Martin & Wood through the trio's later albums, MMW's 1992 debut will come as something of a shock. There's no trace of John Medeski's soulful organ workouts here--he sticks strictly to piano--and the record's disjointed rhythms and dissonant tonal shadings bring it closer to John Zorn territory or that of John Lurie and his Lounge Lizards (which makes sense, considering that Medeski and drummer Billy Martin had previously worked with Zorn and, in Martin's case, in Lurie's Lounge Lizards). But though the slinky grooves and oddball humor of records like It's a Jungle in Here are largely absent, Notes from the Underground still stands as an impressive debut from an immensely talented trio. --Dan Epstein