Crate Digger’s Corner: [Concert Review] Medeski, Clouser & Schutte- Live At The Icehouse
Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich
Minneapolis, MN 5/27/19… While a cool spring evening falls over the Twin Cities, the Icehouse in Minneapolis is just beginning to heat up shortly after 9 p.m. tonight. The reason for that hot spot is the energized playing of jazz trio Medeski, Clouser & Schutte. Largely playing material that has not been performed before; they held the attention of the full Icehouse crowd for the entire, nearly 2 hour, show.
The show opened with ‘Miss Tulsa’ a funky tune that had the crowd grooving along. It allowed all three players to quickly show their ability to dig into a song right away. That was followed by a bit more spacious and abstract tune called ‘Bored Folks’, which led me straight into a zone that did not let up until the music did at 11 p.m. Within that time frame, the music continued to shift from groove based into more atmospheric sections or free playing as songs changed, but even more so within the songs themselves. Despite that constant sway of musical information coming at the crowd the transitions were always smooth enough that it did not break the energy and flow of the musicians, but you could just watch them dig in and listen closer and closer to each other as the night progressed.
Along with the instrumental cuts they were playing, which I would say was about 70% of the show, they did have a few vocal songs as well. Those were sung by guitarist, Todd Clouser, whose style on those (although not vocal quality) reminded me of Asylum/Elektra-era Tom Waits if he had been backed by a three piece band. That is they were generally very spacious and languid musical beds he was singing over, which fit the vibe just right. They also had local legend Molly Maher step out and perform on vocals and guitar on ‘On The 18’.
It would be remiss of me not to mention that after the final song of their excellent regular set, they came back on for an encore, and it was great! The song called ‘Unbreak The Morning’ was a perfect ending to a show that pushed and pulled through musical tension and spaciousness. The song is very relaxing and has a drone vibe to it. It allowed the crowd to sink into the music and provided a calming release to send the crowd home.
All three were amazing in their abilities to play, listen and musically communicate together even though they had been together for a fairly brief amount of rehearsal time (I’d imagine since they are not regularly playing together and based in different areas of the country). John Medeski’s ability to swing from B-3 to Rhodes, as well as holding down the bass lines with the pedals was in full effect. There’s a reason he is regularly listed in the Downbeat polls amongst the top organists. Todd Clouser had his guitar doing anything he wanted and right on time. Whether he’s accompanying himself as he’s singing, finding interesting single note lines to counterpoint the organ or coming up with interesting chordings to keep the interplay fresh he was holding it down all night. Greg Schutte was on the drums (full disclosure: I have known Greg for about 20 years and have probably heard him as many times as any musician I’ve seen). Schutte, who is fantastic at playing just the right things to enhance the music without being intrusive in the music, was once again on point tonight. He is also a very melodic drummer when soloing or when in musical conversation which, I always feel as if it gives a group a little extra juice that your average listener is going to notice but not necessarily hear. This is a show that if you were lucky enough to be there, you have a tale for the watercooler the next day.
I also would like to thank Greg Schutte for getting me the playlist…
Playlist: Miss Tulsa/ Bored Folks/ Blues ‘n’ Peyote/ Where’s Her Money From/ On The 18 (w/ Molly Maher)/ The Kids Are Gonna Win/ I Want To Be The One To Change The World/ No Name Daniel/ Forecast In Rome/ Fuck You Guys Encore: Unbreak The Morning
(I also wanted to point out that I did have seen Medeski, Clouser & Bates twice before at the Icehouse. One of those, I believe the 2016 show, is available for download through Ropeadope Records.)
Also, being that this is Crate Digger’s Corner, let me give you some albums to find for further listening to these artists...
John Medeski- First off, make sure you’re familiar with both Medeski, Martin & Wood as well as The Word (Medeski, Robert Randolph & The North Mississippi All-Stars). I am going to go with some albums that you may not realize he’s playing on.
Spectrum Road- self-titled/ Melvin Gibbs- Ancients Speak/ The Campbell Brothers- Can You Feel It?/ Oren Bloedow- self-titled (his follow-up album has MMW backing him)/ James Carter- Heaven On Earth/ John Scofield- A Go Go/ Ken Schaphorst Big Band- Purple/ The Mandala Octet- The Last Elephant/ Club D’Elf- Now I Understand/ G. Love & Special Sauce- Electric Mile, finally Either/Orchestra- Half-Life Of Desire (There’s a great King Crimson cover to end the album)
I’ve only heard one album from Todd Clouser, but it’s a keeper!
Todd Clouser’s A Love Electric- 20th Century Folk Selections
I have a few albums that should be checked out with Greg Schutte on the drums.
Impossible Party- self-titled/ Park Evans Quartet- Surviving Desire/ Test Site 67- 4 Tone Sunburst Hoopdy/ Test Site 67- Firin’ Up The Virgins Tour: Live From The Virgin Islands
To see photos of albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich
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