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.