The third studio meeting in nearly 17 years between
Medeski, Martin & Wood and guitarist
John Scofield has no easy referent to their earlier recordings -- purposely. This quartet sounds like a real band on
Juice, which is a mixed blessing. The positive aspect is that this longtime collaboration creates near instinctive communication. This is a much more inside date, though the rhythmic interplay between bassist
Chris Wood and drummer
Billy Martin is outstanding throughout. There are four covers from the 1960s scattered among the various originals; some work better than others. One is "Sham Time," an
Eddie Harris tune. The obvious inspiration, though, is
Willie Bobo's version from the 1968 album
A New Dimension. This quartet does it justice with spark, crackle, groove, and grease. The driving organ vamp on
Scofield's "New London" offers a British rave-up wedded to Brazilian funk and Latin boogaloo. The solos by the guitarist and
John Medeski are lyrical, tight, and flow right out of one another.
Martin's "Louis the Shoplifter" is populated with killer interlocking salsa grooves between him and
Medeski (who evokes
Eddie Palmieri's experimetnal side in his playing) amid knotty changes.
Wood's bassline develops along the drummer's pumping, double-time snare and syncopated breaks.
Scofield's solo roils with serpentine post-bop shards. "Juicy Lucy," a group composition, finds
Scofield taking "Louie Louie" as inspiration.
Medeski builds on it with excellent montunos, contrasting mid-'60s Latin R&B with early rock & roll. The fingerpopping exchanges between
Wood,
Martin, and guest conguero
Pedrito Martinez are nasty and tight.
Wood's "Helium" is the strangest, perhaps most compelling thing here, comprised of angular harmonies, arpeggiated, nearly fusion-esque statements from guitarist and pianist, and a whomping bassline.
Martin's forro-esque pulse -- that borders on the martial -- locks it down. The cultural baggage associated with
the Doors' "Light My Fire" is too great for even these musicians to transcend, and with a straight rock chart, it feels tossed off. Conversely, the reading of
Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love," at nearly 11 minutes, contains an imaginative arrangement that makes the listener almost forget the original.
Martin's and
Wood's slow, rocksteady reggae groove is downright steamy.
Scofield works a spooky blues vamp that unwinds slowly into fragmented solos while
Medeski gets swampy on the organ, stating the melody tersely with one hand, and improvising with the other. Finally, engineer
Danny Bloom adds a remix with loads of reverb and echo, making it a tripped-out dubwise jam. The guitarist's funky "Stovetop" is an excellent modernist revisioning of post-tropicalia samba jazz with all members finding plenty of room to move inside it,
Martinez's congas add fand heat. While
Juice is mostly engaging and satisfying, the pervasive "let's just see what happens" approach
MSMW took here also has a downside: it delivers a self-contented vibe rather than one of discovery that their previous records revealed in spades. ~ Thom Jurek
![Moondance [Remastered]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0081227963637_p0_v3_s90x140.jpg "Moondance [Remastered]")
![If You Leave Me Now (And Other Hits) [2012]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0081227974091_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "If You Leave Me Now (And Other Hits) [2012]")
