They've been around about 25 years. Billy Martin was a student of Bob Moses (Roland Kirk, Larry Coryell, Gary Burton, Pat Metheny among others). Moses was on the cutting edge of jazz fusion since the mid-60s and currently teaches at New England Conservatory. Billy Martin is often mentioned by the younger cats on the drummer's forums as a top tier influence and that's where I was first exposed. They've toured with Phish and have a rep of playing improvisational hip-hop influenced Jazz sometimes called Avant-Groove. They often work with guitarist John Scofield and I particularly like them with steel guitarist Robert Randolph.
Strance of The Spirit Red Gator
~ Medeski, Martin, & Wood ~
