Oscilloscope Laboratories and MVD Entertainment Group have come together to announce the release of Not Not Jazz. The new documentary presents an in-depth look at the improvisation and creative process by Medeski Martin & Wood as they work toward their next album, recorded at Allaire Studios 25 years after their formation. It is due out via on-demand video and Blu-ray DVD on August 9. 

Notably, the film previously premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival, which is located in close proximity to New York’s Hudson Valley, where documentation occurred. Continuing its unveiling, it screened at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tenn., this past spring. Directed by Jason Miller and produced by Tyler Davidson, Jim Stark and Elie Weiss, the video merges the space between avant-garde improvisation and groove-based jazz while piecing together band history that led to Medeski Martin & Wood’s quarter-century shared path. 

In a press release, Miller said, “I am deeply grateful to have met John, Billy, and Chris and to have been entrusted with documenting their process as musicians and exploring their personal lives. It’s been a long and arduous journey to get the film made and released,  and I learned a lot from them along the way. It’s my hope that everyone who watches the film will take something away as well.”

From the group’s entrance onto the New York Downtown scene in the early ‘90s to seemingly constant cross-country travels, Medeski Martin & Wood track their approach and refine their sound in consideration of influential experimentations, with a feature being John Medeski’s switch from grand piano to Hammond B-3 organ, and more lauded moment in tracing their origin and approach.

Watch the official Not Not Jazz trailer below.