Influenza with Chris Wood of Medeski Martin and Wood
Approach Influenza as a series which serves to help give insight as to where music is born; these are the thoughts, influences and the inspirations directly from the mind of the artists. Here, Chris Wood of Medeski Martin and Wood describes how an old field recording influenced the group to make something old, new again.
On “Free Go Lily”:
MMW has always used field recordings for inspiration whether it be from West Africa, Cambodia, or the Appalachian mountains. Last year I bought a box set called Art of Field Recording which is a compilation of field recordings by Art Rosenbaum. Mr. Rosenbaum is a history professor in Athens Georgia who, for the last 40 years, has been making field recordings of musicians in the south. We learned the song “Free Go Lily” from his compilation. We took a very short performance of the song by a man and a woman singing and expanded it into a full instrumental arrangement.
