Trusting the process: Medeski Martin & Wood’s career struggles and triumphs in Not Not Jazz

Not Not Jazz
Oscilloscope Laboratories
MVD Entertainment Group

Like brushstrokes to a canvas, director Jason Miller has created a documentary that is surprisingly fascinating. Miller has masterfully captured the psyche of avant-groove band Medeski Martin & Wood, as they record a new album at the famed Allaire Studio, deep in the serenity of the Hudson Valley. Miller describes his work with the band, “I am deeply grateful to have met John, Billy, and Chris and to have been entrusted with documenting their process as musicians and exploring their personal lives. It’s been a long and arduous journey to get the film made and released, and I learned a lot from them along the way. It’s my hope that everyone who watches the film will take something away as well.”

Medeski Martin & Wood emerged from the New York Downtown scene capturing the eyes of punk and rock fans, as well as jazz heads with their improvisations and groove-based jazz. The three grew up in the 1980s honing in their skills and performing with the likes of John Luriie, John Zorn, and mentor Bob Moses, elements of their career that propelled them to the top of the mountain in the 1990s as they made appearances on every Late Night talk show and billed at big festivals. They dappled in avant-noise, sound sculpting through new terrain and adventurous experimentation that became more prevalent in the late 1990s when they hosted weekly parties at the Knitting Factory that featured collaboration with musicians from Vernon Reid to DJ Logic. Throughout the 2000s they continued to be leaders of their sound, releasing album after album of authoritative work. Twenty-five years later from their inception, we find the three grappling with age, personal anxiety and a creative crossroads where they remain resistant.

Not Not Jazz frames the story of the band through delicate intricacies from a story that pulls you in and captivates you every step of the way. Much like Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Miller builds the story to be all about the process until it gels together and the music simply speaks for itself. At that moment, the band is wonderfully vital, deep in thought and conceptually mesmerizing. There is a kinetic thought energy between the three that many bands only dreamed that they could achieve. You see the intensity in their eyes as a camera pans around in longform shots. What remains a mystery is if it’s purely improvisation or carefully contrived.

Through deep reflection, history and the exploration of creativity, spirit and place leads this band through their journey, even if that journey travels through a midlife crisis. We feel the struggles, remnants of pain and burnout, the essence of redemption, the documentary fragments out to the individual and what twenty-five years of making music has meant only to unravel what the future entails.