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Reviews > CDs

CDs / Shows

Published: 2011/07/26

by Brad Farberman

John Medeski & Lee Shaw: Together Again

Artists Recording Collective

Although Miles Davis was big on using multiple keyboardists, and The Band always had a pair of ticklers (Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel), the two-piano concept is generally underused. Together Again might change that. Featuring John Medeski and his onetime teacher Lee Shaw on adjacent pianos—plus bass and drums—the tender and casually powerful Together makes a strong case for the 176-key format. Opening the proceedings—from a live gig from 2009—is “Lizards,” a playful free improvisation that finds the pianists responding to each other’s ideas with wit and emotion as if they were playing a game of chess,. The funkier-than-thou “Wiggly’s Way,” first heard on MMW’s It’s a Jungle in Here album, swings and scurries to the tune of Medeski’s joyful organ and Shaw’s patient piano.

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Olivier April 20, 2012, 18:02:05

wow these pictures are (obviously) anazziimgg it is most likely because of your creative soul’ !! You captured the day as it happened, fun and perfect..i’ve enjoyed looking at these photo’s almost as much as experiencing first hand. I am over the moon you got judith’s hat that sam and i so willingly created wow you were awesome! and so was I jk. Well Done because of your talent and these pictures, i know you had as much as fun as i, even though we must of stressed you out so much with the delay! xxx