Notes from the Underground

Today's Music of the Day is Medeski, Martin & Wood's Notes from the Underground. This might have come to me from eMusic, or this might have been given to me back when I was dealing drugs around the military base. (Note: this did not actually happen.)

Notes is a jazz album, and while I don't know that it would be classified as 'free jazz', it's fairly chaotic. There are individual but given the general lack of melody (enough so that it's basically a theme), distinct impressions about the individual songs don't jump up freely. The soundscape is busy, though, but not really dominated by any one instrument. It's hard to say where this music would not seem out of place; maybe a late-night poetry club full of anarchists and Methodists. Still, the musicianship is outstanding, as expected, and each major player has an opportunity to shine.

It's sometimes difficult to listen to this album and not expect to have a night full of dreams so bizarre that David Lynch will show up somewhere, but it is interesting, just not a work that I am passionate about. I would probably prefer Combustication to this album, for quality and sentimental reasons, but Notes isn't a failure, just something that is almost completely undecided on what it is supposed to be.

In Other News:

I suppose this is the kind of unfocused and brief post you get on a weary but content Monday. I did actually get some work done today, though.

It's definitely scooter weather.