***1/2 Medeski Martin & Wood

TONIC

(Blue Note)

Before Medeski Martin & Wood became Phish-anointed kings of the "groove" circuit, they were monsters of acoustic jazz (as you can hear on their 1992 Accurate album debut, Notes from the Underground). Recorded live at the title club in New York's Lower East Side, Tonic is a return to those roots -- which show in more ways than one. MM&W acknowledge the rudiments with outright homages: Lee Morgan's "Afrique," Coltrane's "Your Lady," and Bud Powell's "Buster Rides Again." Africa is established in the group's "Invocation" by Wood's zither-like strumming; the heavily accented Morgan piece follows. In this context, Coltrane and Powell have the vintage "soul jazz" flavorings of hard bop, to which the band add their own gospel-tinged "Rise Up." This bluesy, Africanized percussive concept of the piano trio, where Medeski occasionally breaks up the funk with torrents of clattering note clusters, connects the band to predecessors like Horace Silver, Cecil Taylor, and Don Pullen (rather than Bill Evans or, say, Brad Mehldau) and lays the groundwork for their current interstellar conjurings of Sun Ra, Weather Report, and electric Miles.

(Medeski Martin & Wood play Jordan Hall this Wednesday, May 17, at 8 p.m. as part of the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival. Call 536-2412.)

-- Jon Garelick