Medeski Martin & Wood
Hilton Hotel Ballroom
New York, NY
4/29/2005

Original master recording: Neumann TLM-170 (hypercards, just right of the soundboard) -> Apogee AD1000 -> Teac DA-P20(m)

DAT playback: Sony R-500 -> Sound Devices 722 digital input (@24/48)

Mastered: Soundforge Pro 10.0c - *All file manipulation in Soundforge done at 24 bits*. Volume normalization and dithering to 16 bits using using iZotope MBIT+ with Ultra noise shaping, with high dither settings. Sample rate conversion 48khz to 44.1khz using iZotope 64-Bit SRC set higher than "Highest Quality" setting w/anti-alias filter. Tracked in CDWav.


Disc 1
1. crowd
2. Improv ->
3. The Letter *
4. Curtis ->
5. Sasa -> bass solo ->
6. End Of The World Party
7. Paris %

Disc 2
8. Reflector ->
9. drum solo ->
10. Better Get Hit In Your Soul -> ^
11. New Planet
12. Queen Bee
13. band intros/encore break
14. Who The Fuck *

TT: 2:01:23.70

* = PJ Harvey covers
% = Cachao cover -- Billy Martin on vocals(!)
^ = Charles Mingus cover


This was a benefit for the Elf Foundation

Taper Notes:
For BARN105, I am providing this MMW show at the request of Rick Duro. This is of semi-recent vintage and is the only time I've ever been to a concert in the Hilton Hotel Ballroom here in midtown NYC. It is a pretty large room but made for a good place to see the band!

They seem to have stuck to a lot of the standard tunes that were in their rotation at the time, but what really sticks out to me was the strong Latin flavor that most of this show had -- in particular the Cachao (the MASTER bassist of Cuban music) cover, which (and again, this is unheard of to me!) Billy Martin sang some vocals on! In what seems to have been the band's only ever performance of Mingus' "Better Get It Hit In Your Soul", they also get a little bit of a Latin groove going. Also worth noting is that they performed *2* PJ Harvey covers in this set. Of course I had no idea what they were at the time and I'm not familiar enough with her music to differentiate those songs from MMW originals. I don't think any of these songs (except for maybe "New Planet") are currently in MMW's repertoire.

Note that there is quite a bit of general crowd chatter early on in this recording (all of the yahoos left before the half way mark) and there is some occasional local chatter as well. Luckily it's generally not too intrusive.

One thing that makes me laugh about this show is that I distinctly remember a conga line in the audience forming at one point -- I would have to assume that it was during "Paris"!

Enjoy!

Scott