Friday Afternoon In The Universe
Medeski Martin & Wood
Friday Afternoon in the Universe is the third studio album by the New York experimental jazz-fusion trio Medeski Martin & Wood, released on January 24, 1995 through Gramavision. Its title is drawn from the opening line of "Old Angel Midnight" by Jack Kerouac — itself a fitting reference, given the album's spirit of spontaneous, improvisational exploration. Recorded during four days off from touring in the summer of 1994, it marked a significant shift from the band's previous work by stripping away the horn section that had featured on their 1993 album It's a Jungle in Here, leaving the core trio of keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood to function as a tightly interlocked unit. As Qobuz notes, the album made the trio's aesthetic loyalties unmistakably clear — they were driven by the fatback funk and vintage instruments of an earlier generation, with Medeski deploying Wurlitzer electric pianos, Hammond organs, and Hohner clavinets almost as quasi-percussion instruments.
Sonically, the album weaves together an unusually wide range of influences — mid-1970s Miles Davis atonality, New Orleans swamp funk in the vein of the Meters, hip-hop grooves, and flashes of outright avant-garde abstraction — while maintaining an irresistible sense of collective groove throughout. The Washington Post observed that "the three players move as one through impressionistic, atmospheric patches into driving funk grooves and then off onto spacey tangents," and Trouser Press singled out the short improvised vignettes as "pure improvisation, instantaneous explorations building into massive, irresistible grooves." The track "Chubb Sub" became the album's most widely heard piece after its prominent placement on the Get Shorty soundtrack, while "Last Chance to Dance Trance (Perhaps)" and the Duke Ellington cover "Chinoiserie" showcase the range of Medeski's keyboard work. The album is widely regarded as the definitive entry point into the band's catalog and a landmark in 1990s jazz-funk fusion.
Friday Afternoon In The Universe
Medeski Martin & Wood
Friday Afternoon in the Universe is the third studio album by the New York experimental jazz-fusion trio Medeski Martin & Wood, released on January 24, 1995 through Gramavision. Its title is drawn from the opening line of "Old Angel Midnight" by Jack Kerouac — itself a fitting reference, given the album's spirit of spontaneous, improvisational exploration. Recorded during four days off from touring in the summer of 1994, it marked a significant shift from the band's previous work by stripping away the horn section that had featured on their 1993 album It's a Jungle in Here, leaving the core trio of keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood to function as a tightly interlocked unit. As Qobuz notes, the album made the trio's aesthetic loyalties unmistakably clear — they were driven by the fatback funk and vintage instruments of an earlier generation, with Medeski deploying Wurlitzer electric pianos, Hammond organs, and Hohner clavinets almost as quasi-percussion instruments.
Sonically, the album weaves together an unusually wide range of influences — mid-1970s Miles Davis atonality, New Orleans swamp funk in the vein of the Meters, hip-hop grooves, and flashes of outright avant-garde abstraction — while maintaining an irresistible sense of collective groove throughout. The Washington Post observed that "the three players move as one through impressionistic, atmospheric patches into driving funk grooves and then off onto spacey tangents," and Trouser Press singled out the short improvised vignettes as "pure improvisation, instantaneous explorations building into massive, irresistible grooves." The track "Chubb Sub" became the album's most widely heard piece after its prominent placement on the Get Shorty soundtrack, while "Last Chance to Dance Trance (Perhaps)" and the Duke Ellington cover "Chinoiserie" showcase the range of Medeski's keyboard work. The album is widely regarded as the definitive entry point into the band's catalog and a landmark in 1990s jazz-funk fusion.