For a drummer whose career has always lived in the space between composition and chance, Billy Martin has built the perfect week. The Medeski Martin & Wood percussionist has confirmed a series of improvisational performances across New York City in the days leading up to Halloween, each with a different cast of collaborators and a different premise. It is the kind of run that rewards anyone willing to show up without knowing exactly what they will hear, which is precisely the point of the music Martin makes when he steps out from behind the trio’s songbook.

A Long Awaited Album Celebration

The run opens on Monday, October 26th at Nublu 151, where Martin joins saxophonist Matt Glassmeyer and guitarist Jonathan Goldberger to celebrate their collaborative experimental jazz album, State Fête, released earlier this year on Adhyaropa Records. The evening has been a long time coming. It replaces a date originally planned for July that had to be rescheduled after Martin was injured in a car accident, which makes the October show a welcome sign that he is back on stage and playing. The trio has been touring the record in recent months, and a New York release style celebration in a room built for adventurous music feels like the right way to close the loop.

Two Nights of Spontaneous Composition at The Stone

The second half of the week moves to The Stone, the downtown home of experimental music. On Thursday, October 29th, Martin appears under the project name UltraResonance, an evening of spontaneous composition built around a lineup that includes Steven Bernstein on trumpets and EVI, Scotty Hard on electronics and other music, and Scott Colley on bass. Nothing here is written in advance, so the performance is shaped entirely by what four players choose to do in real time. The next night, Friday, October 30th, Martin returns to the same room for a night of improvised jazz dubbed Nu Diaspora Blues, joined again by Bernstein and by tuba player Marcus Rojas, a pairing that points toward the low end heavy, dub tinged side of the jazz tradition.

Bernstein is curating the week at The Stone, which also includes his Wednesday, October 28th set with the Resonation Trio, Scott Colley, and drummer Tom Rainey, and a Halloween night Sexmob tribute to Kurt Weill on Saturday, October 31st with Briggan Krauss, Tony Scherr, and Kenny Wollesen. Together the dates turn the final stretch of October into an unofficial festival of New York improvisation, and the Martin nights sit at the center of it.

A Reunion Waiting in April

The New York run also lands just ahead of some news fans of the trio have been waiting on. Martin will reunite with Medeski, Martin & Wood on Friday, April 23rd at the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans during Jazz Fest, the group’s first North American date since 2022. It is a reminder of why these small room nights matter: the instincts Martin sharpens in rooms like Nublu and The Stone are the same ones that make the trio one of the most distinctive live acts in modern jazz and jam music.