Tonight in Minneapolis: Todd Clouser + John Medeski + JT Bates at Icehouse

Todd Clouser explains how the Medeski collaboration came to be

Legendary organist John Medeski will be playing at Icehouse in Minneapolis tonight with guitarist Todd Clouser and drummer J.T. Bates.

Tickets are still somehow available! Get them here or at the door, if you dare.

I know I wouldn’t miss a chance to see Medeski in such an amazing, intimate setting in my home town.

It’s the fifth time Medeski has played in a trio at Icehouse featuring Clouser, who grew up in the Twin Cities but is now based in Mexico.

The Icehouse gigs, which have occurred on nearly an annual basis, started out in 2016. The trio also played at the Revival Festival in 2018 at Harmony Park. And Bates has been the drummer the for all of these gigs except for in 2019, when Greg Schutte supplied the beats.

Jam in the Stream caught up with Clouser in a phone chat recently, where he talked about how he found himself not only getting to play with Medeski, of Medeski, Martin & Wood, but also about his career, which takes him all over the globe with various music projects, including A Love Electric.

Clouser recalled first attending some music workshops held by Medeski and drummer Billy Martin.

“I was trying not to be a stalker but chasing them around a little bit,” he said. “We developed a musical relationship. I had them down to Mexico to sit in with different groups that I was in.”

There’s footage of one of those sessions on Youtube. That session is definitely worth a listen, if you love some Medeski (I’ll admit, he’s on my short list of top modern improvisational keyboardists).

Medeski was featured on A Love Electric’s 2014 album, Son of Hero. There’s some solid tracks on that album, with “Hush,” “2100,” and “Tlalpan Girl” among my faves on the LP.

Back in 2016, Clouser and Medeski collaborated on a recording, Boy 44, which also included drummer Gustavo Nandayapa and bassist Aarón Cruz.

I highly recommend clicking past the previews here on both of those albums and listening to them in their entirety.

Boy 44 has provided much of the material that that Medeski and Clouser have covered in their subsequent performances in Minnesota. 

One of the Icehouse sessions, from 2017, is also available for purchase on Bandcamp as You The Brave: Live at Icehouse.

Find it here.

If you didn’t know, Clouser rips on guitar and certainly is in the right place performing alongside the improvisational organ god Medeski. He also provides the vocals on this side project.

Just how special it is that Minneapolis music fans have gotten to see these three play together at the posh venue Icehouse is not lost on Clouser.

“It really is special,” he said. “Part of making me feel comfortable is a result of John and JT being generous musicians and people, having this spirit of wanting it to work for everybody. The three of us have that, and that allows potentially good things to happen. It isn’t always that way.”

Bates’s now-concluded, long-time weekly jazz showcase, JT’s Jazz Implosion, seemed like the perfect place for the trio. The showcase was the first to host the trio in Minneapolis.

“I grew up going to his Jazz Implosion in the basement of the Turf Club,” Clouser said of Bates. “He is a really important figure in Minnesota creative music. He has been an inspiration. It was always a dream of mine to play with him.”

Despite his success as a musician that gets to tour internationally, part of Clouser still can’t belive he gets to play music with Medeski.

“I hold him as high as any musician in the history of music,” Clouser said of Medeski, acknowledging the surreal nature of getting to play music with such a talent. “Of course, the first time playing with him, it was intimidating, though that is not on him. I took time to feel worthy of that experience. Now I don’t battle that as much.”

For those of us that live and breath for improvisational music, Clouser is not overstating Medeski’s place and his contributions to this high form of musical art. Some of the most ridiculous jams and performances I have ever been lucky enough to witness involved Medeski. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen all of these Minnesota performances, and I don’t know what it would have taken for me to miss one of them.

A Love Electric, Clouser’s main project, does not tour in the U.S. any longer, with most of its dates in Mexico and Europe.

“It was always a dream to be doing that,” Clouser said of touring as a musician. “I have been fortunate to do that. You sacrifice some stability. Especially after the pandemic, I really valued the ability to play music with people that I love.

Clouser’s love for listening to improvised music in his youth, “the world of jam bands,” he said, led to this career. He was into the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, and recalled following around the likes of Pearl Jam, the Dead, Phish and Medeski, Martin & Wood.

“It’s that spirit of live music and the musicians committing to something unique every night,” he said.