Event

An Evening with John Medeski

: "Music is about creating a vibration, an energy," John Medeski says. "It's healing and transformative."
As the keyboardist in the trailblazing instrumental trio Medeski Martin & Wood, solo performer, leader of his own project the Itch, film composer, and producer, collaborator and sideman with countless other artists, Medeski has channeled this transformative force with uncanny power and imagination.
A skilled composer and whirling-dervish improviser, he consistently wrings sonic revelations from acoustic and electric piano, Hammond organ, Clavinet, Mellotron, assorted synthesizers and other instruments. He's nearly as dynamic visually as aurally, windmilling his hands across the keys, leaning into a B-3 stab, reaching inside the piano to tap the strings with a screwdriver.
No matter what sounds he's making, John Medeski is always in relentless pursuit of that unique vibration. "It's easy to get so into studying and analyzing and practicing, and lose touch with that fundamental feeling that made you want to play music in the first place," he says. "When you connect with that, you can play with true freedom and openness, because everything will come from the deep place inside you where music comes from."
"What's music for?" The versatile musician asks rhetorically. "Making money? Entertainment? No. It's a language, one that exists between the land of emotion and the land of intellect. Music can change your whole world."